The bears couldn’t catch a break, even after the huge market surge on Wednesday. Most of the economic data were in line with expectations. Weekly Jobless Claims were pretty much on target at 472,000. Factory Orders were up 0.1%. Revisions to ULC and Non-farm Productivity were also right in line. There were a few surprises, and mainly focused on the consumer. Pending Home Sales were up 5.2%, far better than the 1.0% decline anticipated. Same-store sales for August rose 3.5%, topping expectations for a gain of 2.8%. Technically, the market refused to give up any of the gains from the prior day, putting real pressure on traders looking for some nervousness ahead of today’s Employment Report. The later we pushed into the afternoon, the more pressure there was to cover before today’s numbers. Expectations are for job losses of 105,000 and an uptick in the unemployment rate to 9.6% from 9.5%. Most of the job losses, if not all, should be government, state, local, and census workers. ADP is looking for private sector job losses of 10,000, although the consensus is for a gain of 40,000. Since ADP came out on Wednesday, investors should be bracing for bad news. Also out is the ISM Non-manufacturing Index. Expectations are for a small dip to 53.2 from 54.3. This is a pre-holiday Friday. Expectations are for a very volatile day. If we finish the week with surprisingly strong economic data, it could put pressure on the bears to cover ahead of the long weekend.