Are we all ready for a great weekend? Whether you're a horse racing fan or you just like sunshine, the next couple of days should be good ones for most everyone. Of course, another bullish week for stocks is helping get the weekend started on the right foot, particularly if you've been trading along with the SCN's stock picks. All four were up quite nicely today, outperforming the S&P 500's impressive rally. We're going to take a look our portfolio as well as the broad market's momentum (and outlook) in a second. But, the first thing we want to get out of the way is a closer look at last month's employment data that was unveiled today. The spin from the headlines was pretty positive, but you guys know how I feel about the initial gloss-overs we tend to get from the media - the rest of the story doesn't always jive with the knee-jerk reaction. Look Past the Jobs Headlines On the off-chance you didn't see or hear the news, May's employment data was quite encouraging. The big buzz is that we've finally regained all the jobs lost in the recession. From a technical standpoint it's true, though it should be added the population has grown since 2008. So, on a relative basis, we're not quite back to where we were yet. We're getting there though. Let's just let the numbers and charts do most of the talking, beginning with the biggies. In May, the U.S. added 217,000 new jobs, and the unemployment rate held steady at 6.3%. That's shy of April's 282,000 new jobs created, but it's worth noting we've now seen more than 200,000 new jobs created in each of the past four months. It's the first time we've seen that since 1999. It's good. It's not great, but good. We'd really like to see at least 300,000 new payrolls every month to get the economy into high gear. Diving deeper into the numbers, there are now 145.814 million people working in the United States, up from April's total of 145.669 million. It's still shy of the seasonally-adjusted peak of 146.595 million workers we saw in November of 2007, so I'm not really sure how anyone is saying we've finally replaced all the jobs lost due to the recession. We're certainly close though. Problem: The number of people who are unemployed actually moved a little higher last month, from 9.753 million to 9.799 million. Curious, huh? See, a bunch of people put themselves back into the work force, but they didn't actually find jobs. There were 155.421 million people in the work force in April, but now there are 155.613 million.... 192,000 more. The two numbers telling us the most about the health of the labor market didn't move at all last month, and both are still near multi-year lows. The employed/population ratio is still stuck at 58.9%, and the labor force participation rate is still a weak 62.8%. We need those figures to start inching higher to get wildly excited about an improving jobs picture. While the health of employment market may have been a little overstated by today's headlines, it's still a decent report. While I don't know if we'd use it as an excuse to get into the market, we sure wouldn't use it as a reason to stay out of the market. Portfolio Update As good as things were for the market on Friday, they were even better for our open trades. That's the great thing about sticking with quality stocks - when the market is moving in the right direction, the creme rises to the top. It was a particularly good day for Hurco Companies (HURC) on the heels of last quarter's results. Revenue was up 8% on a year-over-year basis, the backlog was up 10%, and income was up 11%. That's why the stock was up a little more than 3% around print-time today. We mentioned yesterday how the move above the ceiling at $28.00 could be catalytic, and sure enough, it was. Between the opening gap and the peelback from the high of $29.99 today, my guess is we'll see the bears dig in again the coming week and maybe even fill the gap in. That's ok though. The bulls tipped their hand today, and we should be able to get weeks of traction from the upward explosion. There wasn't any other news from our open picks on Friday, but another of our stocks made some key technical progress. Specifically, Astec Industries (ASTE) popped to new multi-week highs and pushed above its key 50-day moving average line in the process. Meanwhile, ANI Pharmaceuticals (ANIP) as well as Peak Cloud Energy (CLD) followed through on Thursday's gains with more bullishness on Friday. This is where we are as of near the end of the day. We obviously didn't add any new picks to the portfolio this week, but BancorpSouth (BXS) is still at our fingertips. We're still kickin' the tires with Laclede Group (LG) and DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) too, but both are pretty far from being what we need them to be before wading in. BancorpSouth, however, is something we'd be comfortable getting into soon. We'll see. Either way, we'll be running a whole new set of scans this weekend for a new list of potential trades next week. We'll put the best possibilities in the newsletter. Almost at the Fork in the Road No real surprises on Friday. The market sprang back to life on Thursday and the bulls followed through today. It's what you'd expect after a strong breakout move the market immediately fell in love with (thanks to the ECB, and employment news today). My guess? I still see stocks as being overbought in the near-term and due for at least a small pullback. There was a small possibility we could have started that move today, but now that possibility has been pushed back to next week where the odds of a dip are now a little greater. The strong upward move that's been in place since May 21st has carried the S&P 500 is up 4.1% since then, and it's a little too far separated from any technical floors for my comfort. And the fact that the VIX plunged to a new multi-year low? We've had to learn to not worry about a low VIX in recent weeks, but this isn't something we can just dismiss - something has to give soon. As for where things could go from here, I liked the way John Monroe over at the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity summed it up in today's EO newsletter, saying: "I've included a monthly chart of the S&P 500 here today, along with its most important expansion levels on a long-term basis. This is the same chart I provided SCN EO Members with earlier last year, albeit updated now, when we set our long-term target for the S&P 500 at 2,000. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see we're now a mere 50 points or so away from this key technical event. I've drawn some long-term wave expansions from the S&P's lows of 2002, to its highs from 2007 and back off its lows of 2009. As you can see, we've blown through every single expansion level with exception to the final one, which you see here at roughly 1,972. I should also point out, once the S&P had run into the first two expansion levels on its way higher, each one was met with a fairly substantial selloff before it finally broke through and started gunning for its next one. Will the same technical event take place once the S&P finally finds its way to that 1,972 to 2,000 level? I would assume so, since history has proven long-term expansion levels are a tough nut to crack. However, the one huge difference between now and the previous two expansion levels is the S&P is now in what I call blue sky territory. Meaning, there's literally nothing, other than fundamental arguments, keeping it from going as high as it wants to go because other than the NASDAQ Composite, all of the major indexes are in no man's land with nothing in their way from a technical perspective, other than these key expansion levels." Monroe actually said a lot more, incorporating technical looks at the other indices to make a really good roadmap for EO subscribers, but you can get a pretty good feel for things in just the few words above - we're within reach of an inflection point that could be the beginning of a pullback, and a line that should at the very least be a volatile area for the S&P 500. That's the long way of saying there's not enough reward here compared to the potential risk to justify getting into new long positions... at least not until we get some clarity with the nearby ceiling. I can see it though. I can see this week's momentum carrying the market just a tad higher early next week before traders finally realize valuations have gotten uncomfortably high. Next week is going to be plenty interesting. By the way, I recommend you check out the rest of Monroe's analysis from today's Elite Opportunity newsletter. He makes a couple more great points that could (and should) change the way you're seeing things with the broad market right now. If you're not a member of the EO service, you can get a free two-week trial and gain access to all the archives. I know it helps me get and keep a good grip on what's really going on with stocks. Here's how to get it , or cut and paste this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/?vmpd_ckstr[click_track]=Newsletter&vmpd_ckstr_redirect=/pages/SCNEO/v1/