Financials Pause Ahead of Friday's Jobs Report...Materials, Tech and Discretionary Lead as Oil Continues its Pullback...CHTR, CTRP, AAPL, EA, NVDA Rise...

Five of nine sectors moved higher on Thursday …XLB, XLK and XLY were the strongest sectors while XLU was the weakest sector.  Oil futures fell 1.33 to close at 43.53.  Oil is forming a potential bull flag.

Breadth strengthened as decliners led 1,575 to 1,425 on the NYSE and advancers led 1,513 to 1,319 on the NASDAQ.

Thursday – strengthened, advancers led on NASDAQ, +4

Wednesday – weakened, decliners led, +3

Tuesday – weakened, advancers led on NASDAQ, +1

Monday – strengthened, advancers led, +9

Friday – weakened, decliners led, +3

SPY up .01 at 217.39 on 97.8 million shares, 58% above average volume

VIX up .06 at 13.48

TLT down .10 at 139.77…on 9.1 million shares, 48% above average volume

Technical Commentary:

QQQ +0.26%, DIA +0.09%, IWM +0.07%, SPY +0.00%,

CHTR +11.61, +4.51% to be added to SP500.

Tomorrow the Jobs Report will be out.  A strong report likely will be good for financial stocks which paused today ahead of Friday’s report.

Many believe that Friday’s Job Report for August will give them the clue to whether the Fed actually raise rates in September.  Watch for the market reaction to Friday’s jobs report and trade according to what you see…trend, support and resistance and momentum.

Semiconductors SOX, SMH continued to be among market leaders on Thursday.  QQQ was the strongest broad market segment as CHTR, CTRP, AAPL, EA and NVDA bounce.

Consider moving up stops on short term bullish trades that could pull back.  All according to your profit protection rules.

Remember breakouts typically test about 70% of the time.

Technical analysis based trades should be closed before earnings. After-hours

Trade what you see, not…

Stocks below support should generally be traded bearishly until a reversal pattern forms.

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Strong Stocks: Setups and Moves You Can Use

Bull Flag Setups include: QQQ, HRL, ADSK, MU, IWM, WMB, URBN, JD, TIF, LB, KSS, ROST, KMI, GPRO, RL, HLT, MSFT, WDC, PCLN, URI, PCAR, VLO,

Bull Flag Bounces include: AAPL, EA, NVDA,

Horizontal Breakout Setups include: BURL, MPC, IWM, SPY, PCAR, ATI, STX, PAYX, NFLX, AAL, MAT, HPE, CBG, AVGO, KMX, TWTR,

Horizontal Breakout include: CHTR, CTRP, CCL,

New Highs include: CTRP, SWKS, ADBE, WRK, NTAP, AVGO, AMAT, INTC, XLNX, SYMC, TSN, CBL, WFC, GS, FAS, XLF, BAC, ZION, JPM, AMBA, MS, C, PCAR, STT, CHK, ETFC,

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Trade with the trend of the chart you are trading and continue to move your profit protection stops.  Continue to follow your rules.

The SPY MFC green line is pointed down below 80 at 64, defensive.  SPY is above short-term support, take defensive action if SPY breaks below 217, otherwise trend is short-term trend is neutral and stay positioned accordingly.

67 of 100 NDX stocks closed higher and two were unchanged on Thursday.

56 NDX stocks are above their 30 DMA.

NDX Stocks to Watch on Friday:

Moving Above 30 DMA = 5

ADI, ADP, CERN, INTU, WBA

Moving Below 30 DMA = 2

ENDP, FAST

6-month Intermediate Term Market Trend: Up

3-day Short Term Market Trend: Neutral