Well…it seems to me that a lot of what happens over the next two trading days will depend on Thursday’s Jobless Claims report and the Friday’s Employment Situation report. Rather than posting annotated charts, here are my long and short watch lists and a few notes on what I’m thinking. I will do my best to communicate over the IM system as things unfold.

Longs:

If the market is firm, I particularly like the short term consolidation patterns in ATHX and RDN, and to a lesser degree CCJ. I do like CCJ in the sense that it’s pulled back to a logical support area within an established uptrend, and other companies in the uranium space see to be doing well (USU, USEG). I’ll be watchig these three for consolidation and breakout moves.

Shorts:

Rather than typical break down short candidates, I have a handful of stocks/ETFs that seem to be way over extended to the up side. Thus, if the market is soft I will be looking to help flush out late longs in the energy and steel sectors, particularly JRCC in coal and STLD in steel. More generally, I think that in a soft market (particularly if that softenss is due to a firm dollar) I will look to KOL and OIH for a short opportunity. These are counter trend trades so to the extent we trade them we have to be rigid in our risk management.

See you in the morning!