The bulls were still in charge this morning as the market opened, but they lost their "mojo" around 10 am ET, and the market just steadily traded off the rest of the day. The end result was to give back essentially all of Friday's gains. SPX closed at $2092, down $10; this is right at the $2090 support level, but really just in the middle of the larger trading range from $2040, the low from mid-March, and $2120, the high set in late February. But RUT was a somewhat different story; it traded off its intraday high at $2172, but managed to close up one dollar at $1266. Volatility was quick to react, with the VIX gaining 1.4 points, closing at 14.0%. 

There was some weak economic data out of China, suggesting a slowing of that economy, but no significant U.S. economic data was reported today.

Trading volume fell off today with 1.8 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading. Trading volume declined 6% on the NYSE, and only rose 2% on NASDAQ. Perhaps traders are awaiting the earnings announcements from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo tomorrow morning. So much news has been made about the ill effects of the strong dollar, that one is tempted to predict it was overkill, but we'll see. One of the problems with contemporary journalism is that original thought is rare.