The Kirk Report

Post Labor Day Funk

Four day work weeks are some of the more challenging and this week stayed true to that trend.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell -3.16%, the Dow -2.79, the Nasdaq -4.72, and the Russell 2000 -2.79%. That's no way to start off the fall trading season!

The largest gains this week came from being short the market with double-digit gains in all of the following over the past four days - ProShares UltraShort Semiconductors ETF (SSG), ProShares UltraShort Oil & Gas ETF (DUG), ProShares UltraShort MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEV), ProShares UltraShort Basic Materials ETF (SMN), ProShares UltraShort FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXP), ProShares UltraShort Technology ETF (REW), ProShares UltraShort MSCI EAFE ETF (EFU), ProShares UltraShort Utilities ETF (SDP), ProShares UltraShort QQQ ETF (QID), ProShares UltraShort Russell Midcap Growth (SDK), & ProShares UltraShort MSCI Japan (EWV). Being short has paid off tremendously this week as talk of market crashes and forced liquidations begin to swirl.

Yet, the hope remains alive and well as we saw again this afternoon in both the homebuilders (XHB) and financials (XLF) today. For the bears to really kill the ever-hopeful bulls, we need to see these two groups taken out and shot down as fast and furious as we've seen them rally of late. Keep that in mind as we head into next week.

* I hope you have a great weekend. Our plans here are to do a little house hunting, play some golf, take a hike or two, and enjoy another sunny weekend in the mid 80's with no humidity. Life is good!

Mailbag

It's Friday and time again to open up the mailbag. Here are the topics I'll cover this week:

• Where I go for most sentiment-based indicators

• Getting stopped out too early and often

• How to track REITS

• Looking back at some market timing calls

• Adjusting trend channels with time

• What to do in forced selling/hedge fund liquidations

• My thoughts on the retail sector

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Bear Feast

• The labor market's cruel summer

• Subprime & CDO losses total $550 billion

• Comments from Bill Gross rattles investors. Here's his September letter

• Get ready for the exciting phase of the financial crisis

• Greenspan wants Congress to give the government extra special powers

• Bush has a good economic record?

• The real economic scorecard

• Meanwhile, the bears go back to work

• It's time to get more bullish according to Doug Kass

• Trader Mike sees plenty of room left for even more selling

• Super Mario says there's a reason to worry about earnings

• Fear quotient spreading fast

• Expect another big leg down

• All eyes on the financials

• Retail-stock rally has some merit, but looks overdone

• Bespoke's sector snapshot

• Volatility has not been as bad as commentators make it out to be

• Currency ETFs break historical uptrends

• How to share in the dollar's surge

• Remember the junk mail indicator?

• It's been 10 years since the most famous hedge-fund collapse ever. But have investors taken this event to heart?

• You've heard the chatter over Lehman and Korea Development Bank, but have you taken a gander at how the local Korean stock market has been performing?

• Charting the breakdown in commodities stocks

• Pickens sees oil returning to $150 a barrel within a year

• The bad news about falling oil prices

• Gasoline prices are still higher in inflation-adjusted terms than at any point prior to 2008

• Both presidential candidates are voicing their support for wind power. Tobin Smith shares his play on the trend

• Downturn still taking a toll on Toll Brothers

• Citi pays $18M for questioned credit card practice

• Time to short MasterCard?

• 99 Cents Only chain appears set to break dollar barrier

• Cooking the books at Sears

• A stock screen showing stocks still ahead of 100% year-to-date

• An introduction to trading by Brett Steenbarger

• Resources for learning how to trade

• Use a checklist to help find quality bases

• Are you an all-weather investor?

• Good CEOs Vs. Bad CEOs

• Bankruptcy basics

• How Universities manage other people's money

• In tough times, psyching yourself up to save is even more important

• Top 3 most and least fee crazy airlines

• Yes - moving is expensive and wasteful (but worth it in some cases)

• The world's most expensive homes

• Computers & electronic gadgets lead to vision problems for many

• Did you know that intellectual work induces excessive calorie intake?

• "Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." - Babe Ruth

U.S. Unemployment Jumps To 6.1%

Good morning. Nonfarm payrolls fell 84,000 during August, bringing the unemployment up to 6.1% which is much higher than expected. In fact the June nonfarm number was revised to -100K from -51K. As one may expect, premarket futures have dropped significantly on the release of the data.

In other news, hedge fund Atticus has denied rumors it is liquidating, the Central Bank of China is in need of capital, and we have some chatter over some M&A activity (see UST & SNDK).

Premarket gainers: SNDK, UST, HOKU, ACET, PCR, ADCT, ZQK, DAR, PFWD, NDK, TTWO, NCOC, NGAS, SPNC, CTX, AUO, & CNA.

Premarket losers: NOK, MER, SWKS, ERIC, CAE, RTK, SUTR, TAXI, CLNE, RFMD, ASML, RIMM, QCOM, AMD, SCMR, HOV, FRO, AMD, FRE, JBL, & CVTX.

All in all, we don't have a tremendous amount to work with this morning other than short-term oversold conditions and that the latest jobs data hopefully will inspire those who want or need to sell to go ahead and pull the rip cord. My task today is to find at least something worth taking a shot at on the long side as everything gets thrown out. No doubt, I'll have plenty of stocks to choose from given the week we've seen.

Have a great Friday!