Before the Open (Apr 1)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets posted solid across-the-board gains – several index closed up better than 1%. Europe is currently posting similar gains. Futures here in the States point towards a slight up open for the cash market.
Yesterday marked the end of the quarter and month. Today is last trading day of this week. The market is closed tomorrow, and yes, employment numbers will still be released. Then starting next week we’ll have a couple weeks of jockeying for position before the next earnings season begins.
Two weeks ago I turned conservative because many indicators I closely follow were in overbought territory. I was hoping for a pullback to allow the charts to reset for the next leg up, but instead we’ve only gotten sideways trading. Oh well. The indicators have come off their highs and could turn up at any time or continue down because they are not in oversold territory yet. The overall trend remains up. The near term trend is neutral. From a technical standpoint the market is in good shape, so I’d expect new highs to be registered.
Here are the Dow, Nasdaq, S&P and Russell daily charts with their consolidation periods highlighted. Even thought the Russell made a new high last week, it started to lag in mid March…something to keep an eye on.

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