Disappointing earnings reports from IBM and TXN resulted in large negative market futures this morning and the markets traded steeply downward after the open, but then slowly recovered and posted impressive gains by the end of the day. RUT gained $11 to close at $624 while the SPX closed up $12 at $1083. Trading volume was up today, rising 16% on the NYSE and 13% on NASDAQ; the S&P 500 stocks traded up to 4 billion shares, but still below the 50 dma. Today's action has the SPX approaching its 50 dma at $1089; this proved to be formidable resistance a few days ago. We will see if SPX can break through this time. Given the market's reaction to the earnings reports to date, that seems unlikely.

My Aug iron condor at 510/520, 550/560, and 680/690 stands at a P/L of -$1190, delta = -$44 and theta = +$139. The market's indecision is giving our theta time to work in our position's favor. VIX dropped again today (under 24%) and this will also work in our position's favor. Can SPX break through $1089 or are we in a bearish down trend that began in late April?