SPX is trading back and forth across that strong support/resistance level at $1410. Out of the last nine days of trading, SPX has been just above $1410 three times and just below six times. SPX traded over a wide range today, $1398 to $1416, and closed at $1409, up $2. RUT dropped $2 to close at $821. Trading volume surged upward to 3.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks today. Trading on the NYSE was up 19%, but trading on NASDAQ was only up 1% - that NASDAQ number seems odd given today's huge downward move in AAPL. VIX dropped almost a full point to close at 16.5%.

ADP reported 118k new jobs, down from last month's 157k. This may be a bleak forecast of Friday's jobs report. The ISM services index was basically unchanged at 54.2 and factory orders dropped to an increase of 0.8% in October after rising 4.5% in September.

From my take on the various news reports, it seems we are starting to accept this fiscal cliff scenario as more and more likely. Now we are starting to see reports assuring us that it won't be so bad. The White House is insisting on raising taxes on the wealthy and offers vague promises for spending cuts sometime in the future. As we add 4 billion dollars to the national debt each day, Nero fiddles. The great irony is that Obama's tax increase will do nothing to solve our fiscal problems; it only makes the envious feel better.