Much like yesterday, the markets opened and traded lower in the morning. Then the bulls started buying and pulled the markets back up. SPX closed down $9 at $1355 after trading as low as $1343. RUT closed down $4 at $789. Trading volume rose again today with 3.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Volume on the NYSE rose 4% but volume dropped 5% at NASDAQ. The candlesticks on RUT and SPX for yesterday and today have long lower shadows; often this pattern is indicative of a support level being solidified. $1340 is a solid support level on SPX from February and early March. The $785 level on RUT was touched in early March and twice in April; the price action the last two days has dipped below $785 and then rebounded higher. The bottom line is that we are sitting on support waiting for the indexes to either definitely bounce and move higher or break support and hit new lows.  But we may be waiting a while before the news from Europe settles down a bit, so watch your positions carefully; if in doubt, hedge yourself or go to cash.

My RUT iron condor for May stands at a P/L of +$1,140 with delta = +$30 and theta = +$136. The June condor is up $1,200 with delta = +$17 and theta = +$67. So far, both positions are handling this pull back without any problems, but if support breaks, I may have to get busy dodging the truck. It will be interesting to see what the unemployment claims report brings tomorrow - more fuel for the fire, or a calming effect?