9:00am (EST)
We love it when a plan comes together. After a slow start on Thursday, the bulls powered their way higher to lift the market to fresh highs again as the major indexes fell right into our target areas.
The Dow gained 30 points to close at 12,318 is right between our zone of 12,300-12-350. The S&P popped 4 points, closing at 1,340, and continues to push 1,350 after breaking 1,325 last Friday. The Nasdaq added 6 points to finish at 2,831 and just shy of our near-term target of 2,850.
Today is February option expiration day so there will be a lot of battles on certain stocks at key strike prices. With futures slightly up, we should get higher bids. It would be nice to end the week on a strong note as the bulls try to close the week with a win but we expect the bears to put up a little fight at resistance. However, if the indexes can clear our near-term targets then we will be looking at the new targets we have been mentioning all week and since January.
As far as earnings, Brocade Communications Systems (BRCD, $6.02, up $0.30) gave Wall Street a nice surprise when they reported better-than-expected numbers after the close last night. The company said it earned 12 cents a share for the quarter versus expectations for 10 cents. This was well below the 19 cents Brocade reported in the year-ago period but they also lifted their forecast for the current quarter.
Shares were up nearly 6% in after-hours last night and those gains have held as shares are at $6.57, up 55 cents, this morning. The 10% pop will do wonders for the call options our subscribers are in.
As usual, we have a lot to cover in our Members Area and we have added a few more trades on our Watch List that we are watching for next week. Futures look like this:
Dow (+6); S&P 500 (+1); Nasdaq 100 (+4). We will go over support and resistance in our 1pm update to give you a better idea of where the market is headed as we look towards next week.
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