I am tempted to use terms like roller coaster and wild swings, but I feel like I have been using terms like those for at least the past year! SPX closed today up $2 at $2086 and RUT closed down $2 at $1209. That sounds calm enough, but today's market was anything but calm. SPX plunged to $2052 shortly after the market opened, down $32 at the worst of it. Then SPX bounced all the way back to turn in a small gain on the day. What can I say? This market is not for the timid. I bought a few of this week's SPX 2060 puts yesterday and closed them this morning for a gain of about 220%. I didn't close them because I saw this bounce. I closed them to lock in an extraordinary gain. But imagine if I had held on for an even larger gain...

Trading volume bounced higher with 2.6 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume increased 12% on the NYSE and increased 10% on NASDAQ.

The news I referred to yesterday for China, retail sales and industrial production, did come in slightly lower for July than in June, but apparently market analysts started to realize their panic was a bit over done as the day wore on. China's retail sales came in at +10.5% in July, down from June's +10.6%. Industrial production increased +6.0% in July, down from June's +6.8%.

The price volatility continues.