Trading volume dropped off significantly today with two billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading, well below the 50 dma at 2.5B. Trading dropped 10% on the NYSE and declined 22% on NASDAQ. SPX traded as low as $2078 before recovering to close at $2088, down $4 on the day. Today's trading reinforced the $2080 level as support for SPX. RUT fell nine dollars to $1138. Volatility rose a full percentage point with the VIX closing at 14.1%. This is probably due to additional hedging ahead of the Fed announcement Wednesday.

New home sales dropped from an annualized rate of 519 thousand in February to 511 thousand for March. Real estate isn't booming, but it is far healthier than many sectors of the economy.

Will the FOMC raise interest rates at this meeting? Or will they use this announcement to prepare the market for an interest rate hike in June? In either case, we may see the market pull back in reaction. Much of the downside push in January came from the silly analysis that suggested four rate hikes in 2016 (I say "silly" because those analysts drew that conclusion from the economic projections for the next 12 months made by committee members. Since when do we take economic forecasts seriously?)

The FOMC meeting begins tomorrow but the announcement won't come out until Wednesday afternoon. I would be surprised if we see much trading volume or price movement tomorrow. Traders will probably just be waiting on the Fed...