Good day! So much for an increase in activity on Thursday! It became apparent rather early on that we were dealing with another choppy range-bound day with higher risk. Volume was light from the get-go and continued throughout the session. The morning began with a trading range for the first 45 minutes of the day, breaking lower out of the 10:15 ET reversal period. The market didn't get very far, however, before coming into the support from the lower end of Wednesday's trading range in the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 and this early morning swing from highs to lows in the first hour of the day continued to hold throughout the remainder of it.

The Dow Jones Ind. Ave. was a bit stronger than the other two indices in the morning. It also broke lower into 10:30 ET, but didn't quite test the prior day's support. Instead it took a bear flag out of the 11:00 ET reversal period to take that index into comparable support. In the Nasdaq this created a 2B reversal off the lows and the slower decline out of 11:00 allowed the market to pull higher into the afternoon. The volume was not strong enough to create a great deal of momentum though.

The market continued to work its way higher throughout the afternoon, taking the next four hours to move back into the zone of the morning highs. The S&P 500 experienced the strongest upside, hitting the highs of the prior afternoon, although the Nasdaq and Dow didn't quite make it that far. The indices retraced off these highs into the close, nearly hitting the morning lows again in the S&Ps by the closing bell.

We are now heading into a three-day weekend and things aren't looking that more exciting for Friday than on Thursday. In the overall market, however, the indices closed virtually flat. The Dow ($INDU) lost 1.76 points, the Nasdaq ($COMPX) lost 1.98 points and the S&Ps ($SPX) shaved off only 0.45 of a point. I expect to be fairly inactive again today and that it will be more difficult to locate decent intraday setups. There were a handful of decent moves on momentum on Thursday, but it was hit and miss in terms of afternoon follow-through on morning strength. Top gainers included JWN, RCL, DE, JOYG, SSRI, and AEOS. There's a handful of economic data due out, including construction spending and August's ISM, but I am planning on biding my time and taking things slow.

Economic Reports and Events
Sept. 1: Aug. Auto and Truck Sales (12:00 am); Aug. Ave. Workweek, Hourly Earnings, Nonfarm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate (8:30 am), Aug. Michigan Sentiment-Rev. (9:50 am), July Construction Spending (10:00 am), Aug. ISM Index (10:00 am)
Sept. 4: Market closed for Labor Day holiday
Sept. 5: -
Sept. 6: Productivity-Rev. for Q2 (8:30 am), ISM Services for Aug. (10:00 am), Crude Inventories 9/1 (10:30 am), Fed's Beige Book (2:00 pm)
Sept. 7: Initial Claims 9/2 (8:20 am), Wholesale Inventories for July (10:00 am)
Sept. 8: Consumer Credit for July (3:00 pm)

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.
Sept. 1: VIP
Sept. 4: -
Sept. 5: MBT
Sept. 6: AZPN, HOV, MATK
Sept. 7: FCEL, JOSB, NSM, SHFL, COO, UTIW
Sept. 8: -
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.