The markets bounced back today, but it wasn't rip roaring. SPX gained $8 to close at $1866 while RUT closed unchanged at $1178. Volatility continued to drop with the VIX losing a little over one point to close at 14.0%.

Trading volume fell off from yesterday's average volume reading with 2.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume dropped 7% on both the NYSE and NASDAQ.

The Case Schiller home sales price index came in at an annualized rate of +13.2% for January, down only slightly from the previous month's +13.4%. The Conference Board's consumer confidence survey for March came out at 82.3, up markedly from the February number of 78.3.

The markets opened strongly this morning with SPX trading as high as $1872 in the first hour, but then gave all of that back by noon, recovering in the afternoon to close modestly up for the day. RUT traded similarly but traded much lower by noon, so the afternoon recovery just brought RUT back to even for the close. SPX is trading within a narrow consolidation range of $1840 to $1880. A break-out above $1880 or down below $1840 would be a significant signal for traders. Recent candlesticks on SPX have long shadows, meaning that as bulls pushed prices higher, the bears pulled them back down, and as bears pushed prices lower, the bulls came in and pulled the prices up before the close. It is hard to tell which way this market may go, but the bulls and bears appear to remain pretty well balanced to date.