The bulls are still in charge. SPX closed slightly down less than a dollar, but holds at the all-time high of $2100. RUT continued to pile on with another all-time high, closing at $1228, up $3. The VIX opened higher this morning at 16.7%, but steadily declined to a close at 15.5%. As we observed last evening, the bulls are cautious and trading volume remains low and declining with 2.0 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading. Trading volume declined 4% on the NYSE and coincidentally, trading volume also declined 4% on NASDAQ.

The FOMC released the minutes from the last meeting this afternoon, but it didn't appear to have much effect on the markets. Most of the analysis I saw after the close blamed the weaker close of today's market on the Fed minutes, but if one takes a look at the one minute chart, he will see that the market rallied after the minutes were released. It is fair to say that markets were largely trading sideways before the announcement and SPX gained modestly after the announcement. The main news from the announcement is that the FOMC may begin to raise interest rates later than many believed, perhaps into the third or fourth quarter this year.

Housing starts for January came in at 1065 thousand, slightly less than December's 1087k. Building permits followed suit with 1053k, down slightly from 1060k. The PPI declined 0.8% in January, somewhat more than December's 0.3% decline. Capacity utilization was flat at 79.4%.

So we will watch as the market continues this slow grind higher. Unless Europe implodes, or something similar happens, it appears that the bulls will carry the market higher yet. Maybe I just jinxed that rally...