Good morning! The concerns I explored yesterday in this column continued to manifest themselves on Thursday. The strong back and forth action we have seen in recent weeks has yet to subside, even though the daily charts are trying to break higher. The pace on the upside simply isn't showing a lot of conviction and it's not taking much to scare the bulls intraday. Despite a normal intraday range, the indices ended the day not far from where they began. The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ) gained 1.42 points to close at 2,361.17, the S&P 500 ($SPX) fell 2.52 to 1,209.04, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) ended 23.05 points lower at 11,216.50.

The bulls saw some of their initial fears realized shortly after the open. With an eye towards Friday's employment data and rising interest rates, the market sold off into the early afternoon. The S&P 500 and Dow saw the strongest downside, putting in three waves of increasing selling until finally stalling at 12:30 ET. The Nasdaq held up much better early on, holding a range right along intraday highs until shortly before 12:00 ET when they also succumbed to the strongest downside move intraday. Nevertheless, it held the lows of the prior afternoon's range and the rounded lows on the 2 minute charts at that support level helped boost the indices into the afternoon.

The market saw another strong intraday pivot off the mid-day lows. This took only about half the time of the decline, helping attempt to change the pace intraday, but the highs aren't breaking by enough to get any momentum into them. As the index futures ran into prior highs, the rally stalled, leading to a pullback for the remainder of the day. Once again, this closing action was choppy and more difficult to trade.

Not much has changed since yesterday. There is still a risk for more of a pullback before we can see a strong upside breakout. A lot of it will likely ride on the morning numbers. As a result, I'll just be playing it by ear since about half the stocks on watch lists heading into the day end up reversing instead of following through. So, it's been keeping me less active and more focused on the intraday front, primarily in the mornings.

Economic Reports and Events
Apr 07: Average Workweek for Mar (8:30 am), Hourly Earnings for Mar (8:30 am, Nonfarm Payrolls for Mar (8:30 am), Unemployment Rate for Mar (8:30 am), Wholesale Inventories for Feb. (10:00 am), Consumer Credit (15:00 pm)
Apr 10: -
Apr 11: -
Apr 12: Trade Balance for Feb. (8:30 am), Crude Inventories 04/07 (10:30 am), Treasury Budget for Mar (14:00 pm)
Apr 13: Business Inventories for Feb. (8:30 am), Export prices ex-ag for Mar (8:30 am), Import Prices ex-oil for Mar (8:30 am), Initial Claims 04/08, Retail Sales for Mar (8:30 am), Retail Sales ex-auto for Mar (8:30 am), Mich. Sentiment-Prel. for Apr (9:50 am)
Apr 14: Capacity Utilization for Mar (9:15 am), Industrial Production for Mar (9:15 am)

Earnings Announcements of Interest
Only stocks with an average daily volume of 500K+ are listed. List may not be complete so be sure to always check your stock's earnings date before holding a position overnight. (A) = Earnings after the close, (B) = Earnings before the open, (?) = Earnings time not specified at the time of this writing
Apr. 6: AM (B), STZ (A), LWSN (A), PIR (B), RIMM (?), RAD (?), RPM (B)
Apr. 7: NDN (?)
Apr. 10: AA (?), SCHN (B)
Apr 11: DNA (A), LPL (?), MOS (?)
Apr 12: CBH (B), GCI (B), GTK (B), HDI (B), LRCX (A), SOSA (A)
Apr 13: MTG (B), NYT (?), TRB (B), VCP (?)
Apr 14: -
Note: All economic numbers and earnings reports are in lines with those compiled by Yahoo Finance. Occasionally changes will occur that are made after the posting of this column.

Toni Hansen is President and Co-founder of the Bastiat Group, Inc., and runs the popular Trading From Main Street. She can be reached at Toni@tradingfrommainstreet.com.