SPX popped up at the open today, but couldn't hold those levels. By noon it had broken support at $1430 and repeatedly tested that level all afternoon, closing at $1429, down $4. RUT was even weaker, losing $7 to close at $823. Trading volume dropped with 2.5 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading today. Trading volume on the NYSE dropped 11% and trading decreased 3% on NASDAQ. VIX increased about one half of a percentage point to close at 16.1%.

SPX closed today right at support and the 50 day moving average. The market has dropped enough at this point that one either has to say the upward trend line since June has been broken or significantly redraw that trend line. If SPX breaks support at $1430, the next support at $1420 looks pretty weak; the next solid support is around $1400. So if we can't hold $1430, we may see $1400 in short order.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment numbers came in very upbeat at 83.1, a big jump from last month's 78.3. The PPI increased 1.1% which was lower than last month's 1.7% rise, so that was reassuring to analysts watching for signs of inflation.

I closed the 790/800 puts in my Oct condor today. This leaves the Oct 900/910 call spreads to expire worthless next weekend. Assuming those spreads expire worthless, my October iron condor will post a loss of $320 or 2% on 20 contracts. The Nov condor stands at a P/L of +$1,100 with delta = +$37 and theta = +$56.

Have a great weekend.