U.S. stock-index futures maintained modest gains Thursday, with Italy’s borrowing costs decreasing as it sold another round of government bonds in a test of market confidence, and as investors awaited the latest round of weekly U.S. jobless-claims data.

Busy economic calendar today so watch close for market direction early on. The Labor Department will release its latest jobless-claims data at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast first-time claims in the week ended Dec. 24 totaled 374,000, up from 364,000 the previous week. The purchasing-managers index for the Chicago region is set for release at 9:45 a.m., while November figures on pending home sales are due at 10 a.m. Eastern, followed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s survey results for December at 11 a.m.

I signed up for the 3 biggest / strongest promotion newsletters and will start playing stocks like NSRS early in the pump to lock in big gains. Yesterday’s $1,000 profit was nothing compared to what other guys did in the $15,000 – $50,000 profit range just by taking bigger risks and getting in early. Playing pumps is extremely dangerous and will never be a part of my main swing trade strategy because 90% of my subscribers work during the day and if it dumps they can’t get to the trade. I signed up because I’ll play these as a part of my new day trading newsletter coming in January.

HDY – really like this bottom turn and would be really happy if it heading into the $3’s short term. Tight stop around yesterday’s $2.28 support because there will be no big losses before January.

MCP – this is clearly outside of my range but I think this stock is a winner in January so I’m positioning now. Goal is to have 1,000 shares and my next buy point will be on weakness or into strength. I’d like to sell in the $30’s long term so again, this is not a swing trade but material for my long term newsletter that will start in about 6-months.

PZZI – really liking this one into January and think that it could deliver $2-3 per share no problem before I’m out. I might add 5k off $5 support if it dips again.

USAT – same old story here, this is a long term Q1 pick for me and I’m hoping to get $1.60 – $2.00 before I’m out. Wednesday it broke $1.00 and apparently I should have bought cause it flew right up the chart afterwards. I’ll add about 15k shares if it does that again.