Markets fell Thursday in advance of Fridays jobs report. The S&P 500 lost ground for a fifth consecutive session. And with the exception of a well received earnings report tomorrow morning, which may be bad because of the perceived notion that the Fed might put a clamp on QE, the S&P 500 is looking to record its first down week since the first week in October. It is looking more likely that a test of the 50 day SMA at the round 1750 figure is likely. The better performing Nasdaq going into tomorrow is down .6% on the week, and the S&P 500 is double that with a 1.2% loss thus far. With good news not really being interpreted well to begin with as markets did not really respond all that great to strong private sector employment and robust home sales yesterday. So what catalyst will accelerate this rally even further? We shall see but often when everyone is at a loss to identify one the markets often surprise us with something. How long will the equity markets be the “monopoly” or only game in town? As we noted home values are rising, so maybe real estate will provide some competition for investor capital. Bonds are not doing so at the moment. Will the healthcare bill delays continue to the individuals, lifting some uncertainty? Will oil unexpectedly drop further, putting more money into consumers pockets? These are all hypotheticals and as always your only guide should be the price and volume action of the benchmarks. They are looking heavier each passing day.

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