Before the Open (Feb 4)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across the board – there were a couple 1% losers. Europe is currently mostly down. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
After two relatively light-volume up days Mon and Tues, the market rested yesterday. The first couple days off a proposed low are easy. The market gets so stretched in one direction, and the selling is so intense for so many days, it’s fairly easy for the market to bounce a couple days. But to confirm or lend some credibility to the “a bottom is in place” thesis, follow through needs to be seen after the initial thrust off the low is seen. That means now…or pretty soon. But unfortunately the unemployment report gets released 60 min before tomorrow’s open – rallying today will be tough. While the jury is out, while it’s not clear what the next big move will be, traders will want to lessen their exposure, not increase it before today’s close.
Here’s the SPX 15-min chart. If the market can survive today and tomorrow’s open and then trade through resistance shown, my target is 1130ish.

headlines at Yahoo Finance
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings Reports
this week’s Economic Numbers