It seemed like the more favorable jobs report this morning came as a surprise to the markets. The weaker ADP number earlier in the week had traders worried and many were short the market going into the jobs report. The result was a huge rally. SPX tacked on $17 to close at $1614 and RUT climbed $15 to close at $954. Trading volume was weak with 2.4 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks, remaining below the 50 dma. Trading was up 6% on the NYSE but down 1% on NASDAQ.

CNBC and other outlets were trumpeting the Dow's breaking 15,000 and the S&P 500 breaking above $1600, but none of the market indexes held their highs. VIX dropped back to 12.9%, off almost one point. SPX's close was well above the trading range it has been trapped within for several weeks. Now we will see if it can hold above that $1600 level. RUT traded up to $960, above the top of the trading range at $955, but pulled back to close at resistance.

The jobs report included an increase of 165k jobs and a reduction in the unemployment rate of one tenth of a percent to 7.5%. While this certainly doesn't suggest all is well for the economy, traders were relieved and traded the report positively. And it assured traders that the Fed will continue its QE programs. So mediocre numbers can be bullish in this environment.

My May iron condor position stands at a gain of $1,500 or +8% with position delta = -$10 and position theta = +$75.

It will be interesting to watch next week's markets to see if this bullish action can continue. We may see some profit taking on Monday.

Enjoy the weekend.