SPX jumped upward at the open today but quickly lost steam and basically traded sideways. SPX closed up $4 at $1413 while RUT gained $3 to close at $817. Trading volume was mixed with the volume of the S&P 500 stocks essentially flat at 2.6 billion shares. Trading on the NYSE was up 7% but trading on NASDAQ was down 4%. VIX ended the day without much change at 18.1% - a dicey area, but not too bad.

Initial unemployment claims came in lower at 369k and continuing claims were essentially flat. Durable orders showed a gain of 9.9% for September and pending home sales rose a bit at 0.3%. But this didn't seem to affect the market much one way or the other.

SPX is holding support at $1410 rather well. For most of August, SPX traded between $1400 and $1420, so this is a pretty solid support area. The 200 dma is down at $1377; that could be a logical stopping point if we break support here.

My Nov condor position stands at a gain of 9%; I am looking for a stronger market to re-establish my call spreads. The 750/760 put spreads are pretty safe with a short strike delta of 12. Both AAPL and AMZN disappointed analysts with their earnings announcements, but neither stock is down very much in after hours trading. If that holds, maybe these results won't drive a bearish response in the overall market tomorrow.