The ISM Services index came in this morning for July at 56.0, up from 52.2. But that didn't seem to have much effect on the markets; they traded in a choppy sideways pattern all day. But the bears could not take advantage of this indecision. The bulls held their own and minimized any damage. SPX closed again above the key $1700 level, at $1707, down $3 on the day. RUT gained $3 to close at $1063. Trading volume was minimal with 1.6 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume dropped 19% on the NYSE and dropped 13% on NASDAQ.

The big news of the day was a record inflow of 40.3 billion dollars into equity funds in July. This reflects a large bond sell off but much of the capital coming out of the bond market is going into money market funds. While many traders are chasing this bull market, many are choosing safety and remaining in cash. The large equity inflows may be interpreted positively as part of the driving force behind this bull market. The contrarian viewpoint points out that the large inflow of capital often comes around the market peak. Hmmm...

The EuroZone PMI came in at 50.5 for July, up from June's 48.7, so Europe may be coming out of its recession. But it is early to make that call. Many European countries remain in serious economic difficulty.

My Aug condor continues to limp along with a net loss of 20% and position delta = -$204 and position theta = +$312. I am right on the edge of closing a portion of the call spreads and taking those losses.  At this point, each day of time decay makes a big difference. My Sept iron condor on RUT at 930/940 and 1020/1030 stands at a net gain of $440 with delta = -$52 and theta = +$78. The indexes had  a moderately strong upward move in the last minute of trading today; RUT gained over a dollar in the last minute. It's hard to say if that is a leading indicator of tomorrow's trading or just some random move. Most of the one minute candlesticks were just one or two cents, so that last minute stood out on the chart.