The market is neither cheering Friday's awful unemployment headline, nor has it suddenly found the crystal ball to see through the economic fog. I will chalk the market's recent positive momentum, including today's impressive run up, to a number of small positives that are pushing it to the upper bounds of a 600 - 800 point range (in the Dow).

On balance, I don't expect the market to breakout clearly to the upside until visibility on the economic front improves. And I don't see any major danger on the horizon that can substantially pull it lower, either. However, some pullback should be expected after strong run ups like today.

What are some of these positives that I am referring to?

As we pointed out in the weekly Roundtable Review video, Friday's jobs report was overall quite bad, but it had a few positive aspects as well. We

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Lawson Software Inc. (LWSN) yesterday reported revenues of $169 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2010, down 11% year over year and down 9.1% sequentially, but in line with management’s guidance of revenues between $160 million and $165 million. Excluding the unfavorable movement in exchange rates, revenues were down 6%. Lawson provides enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions and professional services to mid-market enterprises in the health care, retail, public and professional service industries. Lawson derives its revenue from software license fees, customer support and maintenance fees and consulting fees. License fees grew 23% year over year, driven primarily by increases in healthcare, public sector and equipment service management & rental vertical markets. Maintenance services declined 4%. Consulting revenues declined 29%, driven by fewer billable consultants. The company reduced the size of its consulting staff as part of a strategy to move more implementation services ...

Lawson Software, Inc. (LWSN) is expected to report fiscal first quarter results on Sep 30, 2009.

Based in Minnesota, Lawson is a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions and professional services to mid-market enterprises in the health care, retail, public and professional service industries.

LWSN expects revenues between $160 million and $165 million in the quarter, down 14% to 16% year over year, as the company expects recessionary conditions to moderate in late 2009 or early 2010. The unfavorable movement in foreign exchange rates is expected to account for half of this decline.

EPS is forecasted around 5 cents. Margins are expected to show improvement in fiscal 2010 due to cost-cutting measures undertaken by management.

The company earlier reported in line results for the fiscal fourth quarter. Business for Lawson continues to be adversely affected by the deteriorating global economy as most customers have tightened their budgets. The slowdown

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Yesterday, Epicor Software Corp. (EPIC) reported quarterly revenue of $100.4 million that was down 21.5% from a year ago, but up 1.7% sequentially, against the consensus estimate of $102.14 million. This was close to the low end of management’s forecasted range of $100 million – $105 million. The unfavorable movement in foreign exchange rates negatively impacted sales by 5%. On a constant currency basis, second-quarter revenues were $105.6 million.

Epicor develops and markets enterprise application software solutions targeting mid-sized firms with annual revenue of $10 million to $1 billion.

The company shifted its focus to target retail players from traditional markets which resulted in client wins in the quarter. Gross margin (excluding amortization) of 56.2% was up from 53.2% recorded in the previous quarter and 49.7%, a year ago. This was because of a larger percentage of high-margin license and maintenance revenues in the revenue mix along with

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JDA Software Group, Inc. (...