SPX has stalled around $1405 for several trading sessions now; volume has diminished. One gets the impression that the market is waiting on something. Which way will it tip? SPX closed at $1406, up $2 and RUT gained $7 to close at $804. Trading volume remains weak with 2.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading. Trading volume on the NYSE dropped 12% and trading on NASDAQ decreased 3%.

The CPI came in unchanged for July. But the Empire State Manufacturing survey dropped by 5.9% in July after a 7.4% gain last month. Capacity utilization remains tepid at 79.3%.

Perhaps the market is waiting on definitive economic news to push it one way or the other. Most of the news lately has been pretty mediocre, similar to today's economic news - not enough to inspire traders to invest, but not so dreadful as to make them sell either. If Bernanke and company tell us they aren't going to step in to bolster this economy, that could be the tipping factor; my sense is that many traders are gambling that Ben will come to the rescue and that is holding up this fragile market.

If you study the price charts, it is a bit disconcerting that RUT has not been able to even match its highs from early July, much less May. Normally the mid-caps lead bull markets. SPX is stalled at its May highs and has not even threatened the April highs. But one can draw a nice upward trend on SPX since the low in early June. But it is a stretch to find a corresponding upward trend on the RUT chart. RUT has been very choppy and largely traded sideways.

My Sept iron condor stands at a net gain of +$640 with delta = -$85 and theta = +$79. If you have some bullish trades that are going well, enter some tight stops; this market worries me. If you are trading non-directionally, stay alert and trade what the market gives you.

I may not get to my blog tomorrow since I have to prepare for my trading group webinar tomorrow evening.