SPX tacked on another ten dollars today, closing at $1772. RUT is moving up at a slower pace lately, adding $4 today to close at $1122. Volatility is pretty tame, but the VIX rose a tenth of a point today to close at 13.4%. The bottom line: the markets are overbought by any measure, but they continue higher.  The poor bears keep shorting this market but then are forced to cover their shorts. The FOMC meeting started today. It will be interesting to see how the announcement tomorrow affects the market, if at all. I suppose the most likely scenario has the FOMC reaffirming their stimulus for the foreseeable future, signaling that the party will continue, and the markets trade higher.

Consumer confidence continues to erode with a 71.2 for October, down from 80.2. But the real estate market continues to heal with the Case Schiller price index increasing 12.8% in August. The Producer Price Index (PPI) surprised me again with a decline of 0.1%; it seems to me that prices are increasing in my part of the world, but neither the CPI or the PPI are showing any sign of inflation. Retail sales for September dropped 0.1%. All in all, it was a pretty dismal set of economic data, but the markets traded upward anyway... interesting.

The last minute spurt of SPX has pushed my November condor to the edge. Tomorrow will be "fish or cut bait" time.