The markets appeared to be seeking direction today, trading in choppy fashion up, down and up again. RUT preserved most of its intraday gains and closed at $667, an increase of $7. SPX gained $4 to close at $1103. Trading volume was basically flat with a 6% decrease on the NYSE and a 2% increase on NASDAQ. Trading volume on the S&P 500 stocks was flat. Traders are focused on tomorrow's unemployment report; a preview was today's ADP payroll report with an increase of 55k jobs, which encouraged traders. Initial unemployment claims dropped about 10k while continuing unemployment claims increased slightly to $4.666 million. The commercial office vacancy rate fell for the first time since the third quarter of 2007. The VIX dropped to just below 30%, encouraging some traders to believe the worst is behind us. All of this economic data can be interpreted as support for the economic recovery, but all attention is now focused on unemployment, the last major economic indicator to show improvement. The market's reaction to the unemployment report is likely to be volatile.

Time decay is having more impact on the June RUT iron condor position. The P/L has improved to -$1700 with a position delta of -$63 and position theta = +$289. The July iron condor stands at a P/L of +$700 with delta = -$24 and theta = +$71. Now we focus on the unemployment report.