After yesterday's strong run upward, I was expecting a bit of a breather today, if not a small pullback. And for most of today, that was exactly what was happening. But the last thirty minutes were straight up! SPX closed at $1418, up $3 and RUT ran up $7 to close at $820. Trading volume fell off from yesterday, which was a little surprising for an options expiration Friday. 2.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 traded today; the 50 dma = 2.6B. Trading volume fell 6% on the NYSE and decreased 16% on NASDAQ.

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey released its findings for August this morning: 73.6, up slightly for the 72.3 level from July. This wasn't news to rally the market and it didn't. I'm not sure what sparked the last few minutes of bullish trading; maybe one of the big boys' computers saw a news item it liked and took off to the races.

VIX closed at a new low for this year, 13.5%. This bullish run is perplexing.

SPX August options settled at $1419.02 and RUT settled at $811.65. The 650/660 put spreads from my Aug condor will expire worthless; this brings our Flying With The Condor™ track record to +40% for this year. The Sept condor sits at -$880 with delta = -$139 and theta = +$99.

Enjoy your weekend.