Anybody got big weekend plans? The Weather Channel says most of my weekend plans beyond my front door would involve a snow shovel and an ice scraper, so I'm inclined to spend the next couple of days parked at home. Hopefully things are a little nicer in your neck of the woods, though from what I can see on the nationwide weather map, not too many people are going to escape this next round of winter misery. The show must go on though, so let's just pick up where we left on Thursday, kicking off with a COMPLETE look at the employment picture (not the half-report you get from the media), and then the look at Twitter I promised to you in yesterday's newsletter. Employment is Better, But Still Not "Good" Here's what you probably already know - last month, the unemployment rate fell from 6.7% to 6.6%, and we added 113,000 new jobs (up from 75,000 new jobs in December). That's a step in the right direction, but not a big enough step to let the economy reach 'escape velocity'. It's also not strong enough growth for the Federal Reserve to pretend everything is just fine.. As you well know by now, though, the unemployment rate is only half the story. The other half is the proportion of the number of people who live in this country who still want a job, and the proportion of them who actually have a job. You may recall in recent newsletters this was one of my personal hot buttons, as the dip in the unemployment rate looked disproportionately lower not because lots of people were getting hired, but because lots of people were dropping out of the work force altogether, giving up on finding a job. Well, though the percentage of U.S. residents with jobs is still painfully low, it's - amazingly enough - getting better. Between December and January, the number of people who are in the labor force (though not necessarily working) grew from 154.937 million to 155.460 million. The number of people who have jobs grew from 144.586 million to 145.224 million. The number of people who don't have jobs but are still in the labor force (but are currently unemployed) fell from 10.351 million to 10.236 million. As for proportions, 63.0% of our populous is now technically in the labor pool, up from a multi-year low of 62.8% for December, while 58.8% of the United States population is working, up from 58.6% a month earlier. Those figures are still well below "healthy" levels of 66% and 62%, respectively, but at least we're no longer breaking records at the wrong end of the spectrum. Now, I don't want to overstate the progress being made on the jobs front. There are now 6.348 million residents who want a job, but can't even count themselves as part of the labor force. That's up from 6.111 million such people as of the end of December. Overall though, there's more going for the economy than working against it right now... at least as far as employment goes. Stock Talk So am I going to call Twitter (TWTR) a buy or not? Actually, let's first remind you we got into BlackBerry (BBRY) as well as Silicon Image (SIMG) today, per yesterday's recommendations in the newsletter. SIMG got off to a great start, and though BBRY hasn't done much yet, we still like our odds there. Don't forget, we're viewing BlackBerry as nothing more than a short-term trade, while Silicon Image is a trade we're hoping will develop into a longer-term holding. As for Twitter... Yes, I'm calling it a buy now, even though it's not becoming an official pick for the newsletter. The stock bounced pretty firmly today, and while I suspect its valuation issues will come back to stir the pot again in the future, right now the market's seeing Thursday's 24% plunge as a buying opportunity. Traders aren't apt to change their mind in the immediate future. However, I have to give credit where it's fully due - I wouldn't be nearly as willing to be bullish on TWTR here were it not for John Monroe's and the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity's laser-precise handling of this wild stock. Long story made short, the SCN EO pretty much saw it coming, sensing - and yes, hoping - Twitter shares were in trouble following the Facebook (FB) earnings report. John talked a little about the way TWTR was hitting a wall in the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity mid-day newsletter from Wednesday, and sure enough, it happened. Then on Thursday while everyone else was freaking out about Twitter, in his usual "keep your cool" style, John and the SCN EO team calmly added Twitter to that newsletter's portfolio. The stock rewarded that wisdom today with a 8% gain, but based on what I've seen so far, it's just getting started. Here's the thing... this isn't the first Twitter rodeo the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity service has been to. Those guys also suggested it was an undervalued buy back on November 27th, and sure enough, by December 10th, anybody who listened to their advice was up 33%. Point being, he knew what he was talking about with Twitter then, and so far he knows what he's talking about with Twitter now. Again, the stock jumped 8% today after the SCN EO bought it just yesterday. Now, truth be told, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that Monroe and the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity got into Twitter yesterday. You know what though? At this point it's probably too far gone to chase it. I just wanted to pass it along to you because I remain so impressed by how well those guys can pick stocks. Their timing is uncanny. TWTR is just one of many trades that have been just about as perfectly timed as you could expect. Don't believe anybody can be that good? I understand the doubt - it is pretty amazing. If you want to see it for yourself though, you can put Monroe and his team to the test with a free two-week trial of the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity service. Here's how, or cut and paste this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/pages/SCNEO/v1/. Or, you can continue to watch from the sidelines as a bunch of other people watch their portfolios grow faster than yours. Your choice. (Almost) So Good, It's Bad We'll keep our look at the broad market short and sweet today, since I know you're all eager to start the weekend. Besides, there's not a whole lot to add that you don't already know. We said very early in the week the S&P 500 as well as all the other indices were due for a dead-cat bounce, and though it was slow getting started, Thursday's and Friday's buying made up for lost time. There's a far bigger question that's being asked today - where's the top? Answer: We may be right at it. As of today, the 50-day moving average line is placed at 1809, while the S&P 500's 20-day moving average line is resting at 1804. Both/either are natural support and resistance lines, and there's no reason to think they won't try and act as ceilings the next time they're tested... if they even get tested. Care to guess what today's high for the S&P 500 was? It was 1798. That's not quite high enough to say the key short-term moving average lines have been brushed, but it's pretty darn close. It's certainly close enough to let the S&P 500 touch the 1809 level on Monday and begin the pullback. And, as overbought as the market became on Friday, I'd be willing to say there's a 70% chance we're going to make a pullback from here. It's also interesting (and not in a bullish way) how the volume behind Friday's rally was once again pretty thin. And yeah, the VIX is back at that critical 14/15 area where a couple of its key moving average lines are. Recent history has shown those moving average lines for the VIX have been key make-or-break levels for the the broad market. With all of that being said, I think we need to wait until Monday to make a final, definitive call here. We're in a bizarre environment, and should the buyers wake up in a good mood Monday and carry the S&P 500 above 1810, that could spark a rally all the way back to the 1850 area before traders even think about looking back. The VIX would have broken under 14 in that scenario, but there'd be room for it to slide all the way back to the floor at 12, or even a minor floor around 10, before finding a bottom. Again though, I suspect a bullish move from here is the low-odds outcome. I still suspect there's a lot of pent-up selling waiting in the wings, and this week's bounce is the perfect setup to unleash it early next week. We'll see.