Markets continued their climb higher today. SPX tacked on $8 to close at $1880 and RUT gained $13 to close at $1156. Volatility remained unchanged with the VIX at 13.2%. Trading volume rose, but this is in comparison to the weak post-holiday trading yesterday. Trading in the S&P 500 stocks came in at 2.1 billion shares, higher than Monday's showing but well below the 50 dma at 2.3B. Trading volume fell 21% on the NYSE and dropped 20% on NASDAQ.

Existing home sales came in flat for March at 4.59 million (annualized).

SPX and RUT have been on a steep rise for the past five or six trading sessions. SPX traded as high as $1885 intraday, reaching the neighborhood of its closing high at $1891 on April 2nd. But RUT is way behind SPX in this race back higher, and has not yet even reached where it opened the year at $1161, much less its 2014 closing high of $1209. This primarily reflects the fact that RUT corrected over 8% in this most recent pull back, as compared to SPX pulling back 4%. But neither index has shown much hesitation in its race higher thus far. I was a little surprised at today's market strength given the escalating tensions in the Ukraine.

My RUT May 1060/1070 put spreads are gaining nicely in this run higher, but I have been unable to find a safe place to establish May call spreads as yet. RUT has been trading higher much too strongly. But I have a potential 8% gain with the put spreads alone and feel no rush to add call spreads to the position.