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Good Friday afternoon folks. I know we're all ready to get the weekend started, so I'll get through what we need to get through real quickly today. That's (1) a closer inspection of this morning's employment data, (2) a Q2 earnings season update, and of course, (3) a look at what's next for stocks after factoring in today's movement. Let's just start at the beginning.

A Schizophrenic Unemployment Picture

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Be sure to mark the date. August 1st, 2013 is the day the S&P 500 topped 1700 for the first time ever, fighting its way above a key short-term ceiling at 1697 to boot. The prod? Well, it was mostly the Fed's dovish spin on things yesterday, though this morning's low(ish) new unemployment claims figure of 326,000 - a multi-year low - certainly didn't hurt.

As uncomfortable as I am with the idea, I think we have to take things at face value and assume the new trend is going to remain intact until further notice. On the flipside, there's one more hurdle I see dead ahead. We'll have to clear it first before officially getting back into full breakout mode.

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Well guys, there's no two ways about it - we're waist-deep into earnings season, and it's time to start doing some serious soul-searching with the market's most storied stocks.

One of the names you'll really want dive into is reporting last quarter's results as I send this newsletter out... Apple (AAPL). So, I won't be able poke and prod those numbers for you until tomorrow. That may be for the best though. I'd rather take a little time and do it right, rather than rush through the quarterly filings in order to ferret out the key details others may have overlooked.

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The good news is, home prices are on the rise. The bad news, the pace of home sales growth is slowing down.

That's how things were for June anyway, according to the National Association of Realtors. When it was all said and done though, we can probably consider it a wash that neither bolsters nor dampens the bigger housing recovery trend.

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Yes, we finally got an earnings update from Standard & Poor's that we can glean some data from and give you a meaningful earnings season update. So, let's just dive in.

First and foremost, with about 28% of the S&P 500's companies having reported calendar Q2's numbers, profits are rolling in a little better than first expected. As of yesterday, the S&P 500 is on pace to earn $26.54 for the second quarter, up from the earlier forecast of $26.40. As a reminder, the index earned $25.43 in the same quarter a year earlier, so we're on track to grow earnings around 4.3%.