U.S. stock futures rose along with European stocks as risk appetite built Thursday after successful debt auctions in Spain and Italy. Investors were also awaiting a heavy schedule of economic data as well as a European Central Bank press conference.

A fresh batch of data is on tap for Thursday, including weekly jobless claims as well as retail sales for December, both at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. At 10 a.m. Eastern, November inventories will be released. Claims are out and slightly higher so futures are dipping a bit, we’ll need to see if they stay green here.

BPAX – From up $2,800 on a perfect swing Tuesday morning to $38 profit…just goes to show you these are short lived opportunities. I will record a video this morning on what went wrong from Etrade not allowing online orders  Tuesday morning on the gap, plus all phone lines were busy when I tried to sell at $.58 to letting it ride into Wednesday which brought bad news and a gap down. This is part of trading and while frustrating to have let an easy $2,000 plus profit slip away, if breaking even is the worst that’s happening to me then I’d say I’m doing okay.

QPSA – This has gone precisely as planned. This blog post says it all and I’ve actually profited on all five stocks listed there. See yesterday’s live updates for my plan on QPSA because not much has changed.

USAT – Another solid winner for us. If you’ve been following my live updates then you probably accumulated a boatload of shares at $1 and are up 10-20% already. Goal is for USAT to move up into earnings and look for profit. I’m very excited about this trade working and if today’s market holds and runs it could test $1.30 – $1.40 provided $1.24 support holds bid side.

CEDC – Talk about good timing. We got in on Homer’s alert in chat and it ran about $.30 per share into the close on multiple waves of buying. Same goal as on all trades – get up 5-10% and assess a profit point. If things get really bullish like QPSA then maybe I let it ride for 20% but these are day to day assessments.

FLOW – Really, really like this chart and I think it can deliver $1 per share from here. Almost $1 million in dollar volume Wednesday and if that builds it could really accelerate off this shelf. Stop is $3.40 and the gaol is somewhere in the $4’s. Don’t be shocked if I buy 5,000 more shares on the way up today.

LGF – The rally slowed just before resistance which is normal. If the market pushes ahead I’ll be looking for that $9 breakout today into tomorrow. Tight stop if the market shakes probably but I might give it a little wiggle room because I think $10 – $11 is right around the corner.