Trading involves a great deal of uncertainty. This is the reason many investment advisers and brokers appear so confident and give you the impression that they understand what just happened in the markets and the underlying reasons for the move. We are looking for that confidence. The markets traded upward today. Why? The Greece problem remains unsolved. The FOMC announcement is still ahead of us. I remained unconvinced that the Greece problem is our problem and whatever interest rate increases are likely to come out of the Fed are probably already priced into the market. But who really knows? All we can do is control our risk in whatever position we take.

SPX closed at $2096, up $12. RUT gained $8 to close at $1270. Trading volume fell off with 1.6 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading. Volume declined 4% on the NYSE and decreased 5% on NASDAQ.

Housing starts dropped a bit in May with 1.036 million, down from 1.165 million. However, building permits were up, increasing from 1.140 million in April to 1.275 million in May. The real estate market remains pretty solid. It is somewhat ironic that real estate lending is where the financial crisis began, and the real estate market has largely recovered, and yet the broad economy remains in the doldrums. Many of the people who lost their jobs in 2008 remain unemployed.

Markets will probably be volatile immediately after the FOMC announcement tomorrow. Don't jump too quickly. The move in the first couple of minutes is often quickly reversed.