We know a bunch of our readers connected Thursday's day off with the coming Saturday and Sunday to make it a four-day weekend, but for those of us who are addicted to the trading game, here we are, with plenty to talk about. First and foremost, we hope you all had a great 4th of July, celebrating it however it is you do that. Second, though the market made progress today, you may want to take it with a grain of salt; we'll talk about that in a moment. Third (and we'll slice and dice this first), for some reason the market is celebrating what was good news on the jobs front this morning. It's odd, because the better the employment picture gets, the more motivated the Fed is to end its QE work... which many presumed would trash the market when Bernanke first floated the idea in May. Now traders are looking for a reason to be in a good mood again based on the same news that put 'em in a bad mood less than two months ago. Go figure. Unemployment Report Card You probably already heard, but in case you didn't, the unemployment rate for June held at 7.6%. A bit of a snoozer really. As is usually the case, however, the more meaningful data was the info you didn't hear. Just to set the tone, though the unemployment rate didn't budge [the 'real' one as well as the one you hear so much about], we actually saw some measurable jobs progress in June. First and foremost, the number of citizens who are part of the labor forces was up, marching on lock step with the general population's growth. That would be bad if the number of employed people was stagnant, but as it turns out, more people are working. The Department of Labor reports 195,000 new jobs were created in June, bringing the total number of employed persons up to 144.06 million. That's the highest number of employed people we've seen since 2008. The key encouraging numbers, however, are the proportions... the percent of the number of people in the United States that are working or looking for work, and the number of people in the populous that are actually working. The former (the civilian labor force participation rate) improved from 63.4% to 63.5%, while the latter (the employed/population ratio) rose from 58.6% to 58.7%. Those numbers may seem small, but when you're talking about a country made up 300 million people - more than half of which are in the work force - even small numerical changes are significant. Whether or not the employment picture is good enough to consider and end to the Fed's bond buyback program is debatable. We don't think it's quite there yet, but we'll acknowledge that if you wait for a red hot employment picture to materialize, then you've waited too long. Cutting the QE efforts now won't kill us. It'll sting, but it won't kill us... no matter how much fear-mongering is surrounding the idea. No matter what side of that fence you stand on, as investors we can take some solace in the fact that there's some progress where we need it the most. It's not a great employment picture, but it's decent. For many companies though, 'decent' is good enough to make a buck; we don't need a stimulus anymore. Just adjust expectations accordingly. Looks Like a Breakout, But... Impressed? I can't say I blame you. Any day the market advances nearly 1.0% is a good day. Any day the S&P 500 moves above its 50-day moving average line is also a good day, especially after it had struggled to move above it for more than a week. I tell you what though.... I'm still not convinced (though I'm a lot more open minded than I was a few days ago). The good news is, the S&P 500 crossed above the 50-day moving average line. The bad news is, the volume behind the move was minimal. Even worse is the fact that the VIX plunged to a deep low as well as a major floor, and is no poised for a rebound. That's bad for stocks. The only thing that's going to make a difference now is what kind of mood traders come back in on Monday. If they come back in a bullish mood, that may be enough to carry the S&P 500 above a short-term resistance line (red). That may also be enough to push the VIX under its 50-day moving average line. If that happens, it could be just the nudge the market needs to do what the odds don't favor - start a new rally. If instead the market rolls over and we make a lower low and lower close and/or if the VIX makes a strong reversal move higher, the correction discussion gets stirred back up. From where we sit right now, you may as well toss a coin as to the outcome here. No need to worry about it today. We'll get our answers come Monday morning. But again, there's just something suspicious about today's action. Choppy Market? No Problem. You know, I'm a little ashamed to admit I haven't taken a step back to look at the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity portfolio in a while. I read their newsletter every day, but sometimes it pays to log in to the site and see what all these guys have on the table, and how well they're doing with it. I'm not going to tell you every stock these guys have, and I'm certainly not going to show you the newer ideas; current subscribers deserve some breathing room on recent trades. But, for the trades that are already out of reach to newcomers, what's the harm? As is stands right now, the SCN EO's got ten open trades. Seven of them are up, which is saying quite a bit considering the market's down 3.2% since late-May. Five of those ten open positions are up double-digits too, with Career Education (CECO) up 30% since early May, and Atricure (ATRC) up 21% since early February (and neither of those is actually the biggest winner). How do they find these big winners when the market seems to be doing nothing at all? Well, it's decades' worth of combined trading experience, supplemented by strict discipline, and underscored by an innate ability to spot that one-in-a-hundred scenarios where the market's missing the boat on an opportunity. Ten open trades, none of which are older than a January entry, and five of them are up by far more than 10%. Two of them are up by 30% or more. In this market environment, that's heroic. You can see what it's all about, or you can keep missing out. Take a free two-week test drive. Here's how. Or, copy and paste the following link in your browser: http://www.smallcapnetwork.com/?vmpd_ckstr[click_track]=SCN+Newsletter&vmpd_ckstr_redirect=/pages/SCNEO/v1/