Today's Best Day Trade

U.S. Stocks bounced to the upside on Thursday, and with a little bit of extra volume. A diverse group of industries lead the way higher, as it appears traders and fund managers are doing some bottom picking. Resorts and Casinos was the big mover of the day, followed by Northeast Regional Banks and Apparel Stores.

However, ahead of Friday's employment report, I would not want to take any significant long positions. Today's jobless claims figures leaped to over 600,000 new claims for the latest week, a sign that job losses may even be accelerating in February.

I think traders were betting that the Senate is close to some sort of deal on the stimulus package. That all depends on whether the Democrats want to pass a bill with help from the Republicans, and how much Republicans are willing to compromise. To me, it does not sound like there is enough cutting of the pork in the bill sent up from the House. From what I have heard so far, the bill in its current form probably won't create enough jobs to offset three months worth of declines at the rate we are going presently.

On the sentiment front, I am seeing too many analysts on CNBC come on and say we were in a bottoming process. I hardly hear anyone say we will see another leg down in this market. The CNBC crew was pointing out a steepening in the yield curve, as if that is a sign the economy is ready to bounce. Seems to me, it just may be that China may be selling our debt at a huge profit. Otherwise, there is virtually no reason for the credit markets to indicate that the economy is going to strengthen any time soon.

Nonetheless, there a number of excellent daytrading opportunities today. The chart below is MV. This is a classic opening range breakout trade that resulted in a one direction move into the close.

Scott Cole
www.bestdaytradingstocks.com
www.kungfutrader.com