Markets opened weakly this morning based on renewed concerns over the European debt crisis coupled with concern about high oil prices. But the buyers appeared and drove the market averages back up to close the day approximately even or with modest gains. SPX closed at $1368, up $2 while RUT was unchanged at $827. Trading volume in the S&P 500 bumped up to 2.8 billion shares; trading jumped 20% on the NYSE and was up 8% on NASDAQ. SPX has been rising slowly for the past few days, but a glance at the chart is impressive: SPX has gained 14% since mid-December. The price move has been very consistent and steady. By contrast, RUT has been bouncing up against $830 since early February and has made no progress at all this month.

The only economic news of the day was pending home sales, which were up 2% in January - quite the contrast from December drop of 1.9%.

My Mar condor on RUT stands at breakeven with delta = -$115 and theta = +$228. The delta of the short 860 calls is 18, so we are still under pressure on the top side. That fact that RUT has stalled at $830 for this entire month has been very helpful for this position. We will see what tomorrow brings.