Review of Sub $5 Setups & some Jan. 4 Plays

The U.S. stock market gapped up at the opening on the first day of trading for 2012, with the S&P 500 closing up 1.55% to close at 1277.06.

With that backdrop it's easy to see why several of the setups from the sub $5 group did so well today.  The best performers from the group were USU,  up over 13% at $1.29,  CMED up over 9% at $3.10, while SIGA had already triggered on Friday, and closed today at $2.70, up another 7%.  PLM also triggered at 1.07 and closed at 1.10.  PLG triggered over .93, but I didn't like the way it gapped up as it didn't offer a decent entry.

USU, CMED, SIGA, and PLM all look like they could have more upside, so keep those on the radar.  

The uranium group has really been beaten down going into the end of last year, and today's move in USU was coupled with strength in the sector from CCJ (+4%), DNN (+9.6%), URZ (+7%, and one of tonight's setups), and URG (+3.6%,  another setup for tomorrow).  URRE posted a near 9% gain today, but it doesn't offer a clearly definable setup for me to post.  That said, it certainly could rally further if the group strength continues.

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I pointed out strength in the coal sector before the market opened on December 27th of last year, and posted charts of both KOL and JRCC on chart.ly (see here: http://stks.co/1gdy    http://stks.co/1gdW ).  That entire group rocketed higher today.  I booked nice gains in JRCC, but would like to see some consolidation in the group before I look for another play there.

After these big gains in the market indices on the first day of 2012, I'm looking for an entry into one of the inverse index ETFs like TZA, SPXU, etc over the next short period of time.  While it would be nice to see the market continue to firm and give a valid through to today's move,  something tells me the world's economic problems weren't solved over the 3 day holiday weekend.

Here are some setups for tomorrow's trading, listed in no particular order.  Check back tomorrow morning here on the blog or on my Twitter stream (@ToddinFL) for any new ideas.

Click on images to enlarge: