The Standard and Poors Index broke out of its trading range to new highs this morning and held those highs into the close. But before you get too excited, note that this break-out occurred with a big decrease in volume.

SPX closed up $9 at $1518 and RUT gained $6 to close at $914. Trading volume fell off to 2.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks; the 50 dma stands at 2.5B. Trading volume fell 15% on the NYSE and dropped 7% on NASDAQ. As one might expect in the midst of all of this euphoria, the VIX dropped a half point to 13.1%. Apparently, traders don't think the threat of sequestration and treasury bond downgrades are anything to be concerned about. But as Clint Eastwood said on CNBC this morning, if the politicians in Washington don't think this is a problem, why should we?

There wasn't any significant economic news today, but it appeared that the Linked In and AOL earnings announcements encouraged traders. I must admit that I don't get it.

My Feb condor continues to wander along near break-even with a gain of $339 (+2%) with position delta = -$190 and position theta = +$176. I plan to take my best friend of 45 years to dinner at our favorite place, sip a glass of wine, and try to put the market and politics behind me. Enjoy your weekend.