The markets opened up weakly in the black today but began giving the gains back within a few minutes and slowly declined all day, closing near the lows of the day. SPX closed down $14 at $1205 and RUT lost $13 to close at $709. Trading volume dropped dramatically with only 2.7 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading today. Volume dropped 39% and 38%, respectively, on the NYSE and on NASDAQ.

There wasn't much economic news today, but financials seemed to lead the market weakness, but it wasn't clear what news precipitated that move. Band of America shares dropped below $5 today. I used to think of $5 stocks belonging to some little company few had heard of, but no more.

I closed the 970/980 put spreads in my January iron condor on SPX; with the earlier close of the 1350/1360 call spreads, that locks in an 11% gain.

The Santa Claus rally is remaining elusive so far. Maybe this will be one of the "exception" years.