Stocks opened in positive territory this morning after yesterday's devastating drop. SPX gained $22 to close at $1575 while RUT closed at $923, a gain of $16. Yesterday's move on SPX left the index within the trading range observed for most of March, but today's spurt back upward once again took the index back above that trading range. Whereas SPX opened this morning at yesterday's close, RUT gapped upward at the open and climbed from there. However, neither index undid all of the damage done yesterday. One of the most positive aspects of today's trading was a dramatic three point drop in the VIX, to 13.96%. So it appears that the bulls remain in control of this market. As demonstrated by GS, JNJ and KO last evening, corporate earnings remain strong. And the Fed is still priming the market, so the bullish case is intact. Whether it makes sense to you or me isn't relevant.

Trading volume returned to the 50 dma of 2.5 billion shares in the S&P 500 stocks; trading volume declined from yesterday's elevated levels on both the NYSE (-21%) and NASDAQ (-16%).

A large number of economic data was reported today, but without any surprises either way. The CPI declined 0.2% in March, down from the 0.7% increase reported last month. Housing starts increased 68k, but building permits dropped 37k. Industrial production increased 0.4% and capacity utilization increased slightly to 78.5% from last month's 78.3%.

My May iron condor stands at a P/L of +$900 (+5%) with position delta = +$30 and position theta = +$68.