The Standard and Poors 500 Index is struggling to get past that large round number of $2,000. Today, SPX ran as high as $2005 but couldn't hold that high price into the close at $2,000, up $2. Technically, SPX broke the $2,000 mark by two cents, closing at $2,000.02. RUT is still playing catch up and gained $10 today to close at $1175. RUT remains far from its closing high at $1208 in early July. Volatility was flat with the VIX unchanged at 11.6%. Trading volume remains flat on the S&P 500 stocks at 1.3 billion shares, unchanged from yesterday, but trading bumped up 8% on the NYSE and increased 4% on NASDAQ.

All of today's economic data was positive with a huge gain in durable goods orders: a 22.6% gain in July as compared toJune's +2.7% gain. The Case Schiller housing price survey came in at +8.1% for June, a bit lower than May's +9.4%, but still pretty strong. The Conference Board's consumer confidence survey hit 92.4 for August, up from 90.3. I'm not sure why this survey of consumers seems to be disconnected from the survey by the University of Michigan.

My September SPX condor only consists of the 1830/1840 puts at this point. I tried to close those remaining puts for five cents today, but couldn't get it filled. I should have entered the order first thing this morning; I might have been filled as SPX spiked up to $2005. Maybe tomorrow.