Good Afternoon,

Well, we received good news from the manufacturing sector, with ISM Manufacturing coming in well above expectations.  Also above expectations was the prices paid (who cares as no inflation here) and employment components. Below expecations was the new orders index (no surprise).

Challenger and ADP employment reports haven't been so accurate, so we now wait for tomorrow's unemployment claims number and Friday's big jobs report (-100k is the consensus estimate).

We are closing with a gain of 2.8% in the SPX. With the equities rallying, we saw the dollar lose some of its recent strength (against some pairs), which boosted commodity prices nicely. One such stock is VALE, up 5.8%

Will it be enough of a move off our lows to prevent a break of 26.00?

The overall SPY did something similar, moving well of its recent low of 1048. So now we have 1048 as decent support as well as 1015 below that. Two key levels that really could give a boost to the markets if we start to get some positive news!

This is key - having a nice understanding of your levels for each of your stocks in your watchlist - start with a long term chart (2 years or more) and then move down to your 1 year, 6 month, 3 month, 1 month, 15 minute, etc... Where you stop depends on your timeframe as a trader:

**day

**swing

**intermediate

**position

Positive news could happen, but it really comes down to Friday's report.  So if you are playing defense, I suggest you still keep that in play through the long weekend.

Moving to the intra-day markets in forex, we had a BUFFALO BOUNCE that barely blew through its boundary in the USD/CAD:

Let's see if we can get some good news out of claims as that may boost the markets through the afternoon when we could see some profit taking.

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