The markets traded underwater all day, but surged in the last hour of trading to make a small gain on the day. SPX closed higher by $2 at $1472 and RUT gained $5 to close at $885. VIX remains flat at 13.5%. Trading volume remains weak with 2.4 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading, remaining below the 50 dma. Volume rose 4% on the NYSE but was flat on NASDAQ.

Retail sales came in at an increase of 0.5%, an improvement over the previous month's 0.3% increase. The PPI dropped 0.2% in December. The Empire State manufacturing survey was again in negative territory for Dec with a -0.2% reading. This was better than the previous month's -0.8%, but this is the sixth month in succession of contraction in this survey of manufacturing.

The most interesting news of the day was Germany's announcement that they are moving their gold reserves back to Germany; some will come out of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and some will come out of France's central bank. What does this say about trust between the global banks? Maybe things are worse in Europe than we thought? Maybe Germany is worrying about our government's solvency?

There certainly is plenty to worry about... In the meantime, my Feb iron condor remains in the black. I positioned this one a little tighter than normal, so I can afford to close it early for a reasonable gain. I don't want to be exposed to this market for too long these days.