Good day! The indices experienced a very narrow and choppy trading range on Thursday. This comes after Wednesday's substantial selloff. The indices gapped lower after poor economic data once again hit the airwaves at 8:30 am ET. Productivity growth of nonfarm businesses fell to zero for Q3, but unit labor costs increased at an annualized rate of 3.8%. This causes a concern on whether inflation is really in check. The initial jobless claims data also came out at the same time, indicating a rise in applications for state unemployment benefits to the tune of +18,000, hitting 16-week highs.

The market was still extended from Wednesday's decline, so the morning data was not enough to continue the selling pace past the first 20-30 minutes. The move flushed out the remaining weak hands and allowed the market to hold the early morning lows throughout the rest of the day. At 10:00 am ET the factory data came out with a weaker than expected increase in factory orders by 2.1%, opposed to the anticipated 3.8%.

Intraday trading out of the open was actually not too bad given the indices. A lot of stocks gapped higher on news and continued their trend early in the day. These included GES, TSRA, PLXS, PRU, WCG, and VCLK. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was not as propitious. After a decent continuation pattern on the upside out of the 10:15 ET reversal period, the Dow Jones Ind. Ave. and S&P 500 closed their gaps and the indices ran smack into large resistance at the 15 minute 20 simple moving average. This marked the upper end of the day's range and both the highs and lows of the morning held until the close.

The week concludes with continued employment releases. Nonfarm payrolls, hourly earnings, average workweek, and the unemployment data are all set to be released ahead of Friday's open. This will be the primary stimulus for momentum on Friday, but since it occurs in the premarket, much of the immediate aftermath will already have subsided by the open. Thursday's trading range in the indices was so lack-luster, however, that it seems to be a given that the activity on Friday will offer more decent setups than in the prior day. It is the end of the week, however, so my focus is still on daytrades.

Economic Reports and Events
Nov. 3: Nonfarm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate, Hourly Earnings, and Average Workweek for Oct. (8:30 am), ISM Services for Oct. (10:00 am)
Nov. 6: -
Nov. 7: Consumer Credit for Sept. (3:00 pm)
Nov. 8: Crude Inventories 11/03 (10:30 am)
Nov. 9: Export Prices ex-ag. and Import Prices ex-oil for Oct. (8:30 am), Initial Claims 11/04 (8:30 am), Trade Balance for Sep. (8:30 am), Wholesale Inventories for Sep. (10:00 am)
Nov. 10: -

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.
Nov. 3: AEE, DUK, EGO, HPOL, HNT, HRP, KSE, MHS, NRG, OMG, PGN, SRP, TTI, THQI, WR
Nov. 6: LEND, ATVI, AES, ALTR, APC, AINV, BBD, BKHM, CDE, CCRT, DCEL, EP, FRT, FLR, GGP, GSS, GSP, HELX, HIMX, INAP, LINTA, MVL, NNN, NTES, OSIP, PNK, RNWK, O, SBAC, SONS, BEE, ELOS, TELK, XMSR
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.