All of the major market indices traded downward today. In fact, the NASDAQ composite, Russell and the S&P 500 all gapped open lower this morning and continued lower through most of the morning. But all of the indices recovered some of their losses before the close. I think traders were just taking some profits off the table before Alcoa led off the earnings announcement cycle this evening. SPX lost $14 to close at $1964 and RUT closed at $1172 for a loss of $15. Volatility only picked up modestly with the VIX closing at 12.0%, up less than three quarters of a point. The initial reports from the Alcoa earnings announcement appear to be positive, so perhaps this two day slide will end tomorrow (or at least not accelerate). Trading volume popped up with two billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading today. This was one of the rare days where trading volume was above the 50 dma (just five times since the first of May).

RUT and the NASDAQ traded down more strongly than SPX. In addition, all of the indices bounced back somewhat in afternoon trading. Closing at the lows of the day would have been very bearish. SPX bounced off support at $1960. RUT traded down to $1169 in late June before heading higher to challenge its all-time high just a few days ago. Today's intraday low on RUT was $1167. For all of those reasons, I didn't join the "sky is falling" crowd today, but that didn't stop me from hedging my RUT July condor position - better safe than sorry. I can afford the insurance. We'll see if I need that insurance.