With Nobody Around, Traders Bid Stocks Higher; Enjoy The 3-Day Labor Day Weekend!

On a day lacking of traders, the few that remained found no problem bidding stocks higher as a good job's report number was the only reason they needed. The buying that they did helped the Nasdaq join the SP 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average in hitting three month highs.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up .7%, the SP 500 up .6%, the Nasdaq up .4%, and the SP 600 lagged with a .3% gain. That finished off a week that saw the SP 600 lead with a 2.6% gain, the Nasdaq follow with a 2.5% gain, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the SP 500 finished with 1.6% and 1.2% gains respectively.

Obviously, volume came in lower than the day before, as traders headed out to turn a 3-day weekend into the beloved-on-Wall Street 4-day weekend that every holiday turns into. This makes it 17 in a row on the SP 500 and 11 in a row on the Nasdaq for volume coming in under the 50 day volume average. Advancers beat decliners by a 2-to-1 margin on the NYSE and by a 4-to-3 margin on the Nasdaq.

There are a lot of conflicting opinions right now on what this market is supposed to do. I am in the I-Don't-Know camp. I like it here. But what I do know is the facts and what the facts tell us is that there are some bullish reasons for this market and there are a lot of bearish reasons. So what are they?

The positives aren't that much but there is the fact that the II Survey of bulls/bears did meet at the same level June--that rarely happens, the Nasdaq is up 3.7% since its follow-through in July, everyone is expecting a September selloff based on cycles, lots of stocks are breaking out--not all are holding but this is better than in June, and tech and small-cap stocks are leading big-cap stocks.

The negatives are a bit more convincing. The yield curve is inverted, AAII Survey shows that bears dropped to a low level, the II Survey has been showing more bulls and less bears the past week, the IBD 100 is lagging the market--normally in raging bulls this index leads, the McClellan oscillator is overbought, the ARMS index is overbought, the 10 dma of the adv/dec line is overbought, and we rallied on very low volume.

There are other bullish and bearish reasons out there but these are the ones that are coming to my mind as I type this. After looking at everything and taking it in, I would say you have to put me in the "I am following the trend but I am not trusting it AT ALL" camp. The negatives FAR outweigh the positives.

The only other thing of interest I noticed today was the fact that IBD has plastered GROW on every market recap and Nasdaq summary it can create. Why did they have to talk about it so much? Sheesh, LOL. The breakout probably will not work now (I am joking) as it will be ready by everyone everywhere as the only stock that looked HOT after Friday's market. Oh well, with the earnings and sales growth I am sure some IBD traders aren't going to be the reason why this stock rallies or falls.

Volume should return sometime next week, as the vacations end and the traders return to their desk. This along with the 50 day volume average coming in should make it clear where the big boys are putting their money to work in the coming days. Volume is what we are going to need to be able to establish and make a commitment to one side or the other. This driftless action makes it pointless to try to trade too much and hit homeruns that can not be hit.

With that I leave you with the famous words of Rick James performed by Dave Chappelle on the 'Chappelle Show.' "Eat, drink, and be merry b*tch*s!"

Have a great Labor Day weekend and I will see you at Investors Paradise.

New Swing Longs: GROW

New Swing Shorts: NONE

Longs Outperforming (low vol non-IBD excluded): DSGX-54 IHS-53 SYKE-39 BAM-47 DA-37 CXW-25 NEU MWRK ORB BW LMT HCSG NITE BTJ ALY VRGY RNST IDXX SZE INWK VTIV DIGE SEIC IMA WNR PT WEBX MO EGN TRMA DJO BRR EMS MA STEC LNCE ICI WGA

Shorts Outperforming (all): NTE-46 SWC-36 ZRAN-25 GYI-23 POOL FRC XPRSA EXBD NGS

Completely Cover Shorts: USG MAS HSY EL

Stocks On Radar Screen: LNN PRXL VMI TPL VOCS SCA ACTI FRG PLM CRAY HLTH ZTM GMTC EAR ICA BIOV