SPX opened higher this morning in spite of a weak jobs report, probably thinking that bolstered the case for tapering (now the market seems ready for tapering). But it quickly reversed and dropped $20 to the low of the day at $1641, based on Putin's comments about supporting Syria. Then it regained its previous highs by noon and traded higher in the early afternoon. But then all of this exuberance appeared to weigh on the markets so it gave it all back with SPX closing flat at $1655. RUT followed suit but managed to close up one dollar at $1030. Volatility also ran higher before settling to close with no change with VIX at 15.8%. All of this occurred with higher trading volume, up to 2.0 billion shares of the S&P 500. Trading volume increased 9% on the NYSE and increased 11% on NASDAQ.

The jobs report came out with 169 thousand new jobs and unemployment dropped a tenth of a percent to 7.3%. But the unemployment drop was principally due to a lowered labor force participation rate. Many analysts viewed the report as mediocre, but probably adequate for the FOMC to justify a beginning to tapering the stimulus programs. Others believe Bernanke will wish to begin tapering before his term runs out, but that doesn't make sense to me. If Bernanke believes stimulus is needed until unemployment drops below 6.5%, then why would he remove stimulus and risk a recession? If he doesn't think stimulus is required with unemployment at 7.3%, why did he specify 6.5% as the target (repeatedly)?

I re-established my Sept condor position with the 940/950 put spreads and that position now stands at a net P/L of +$1,760 or +10% with delta = +$25 and theta =+$99.

Have a great weekend.