The sky is falling! The doom and gloom folk are filling the air waves and the print media. SPX closed today at $1983, down $12. But the close on September 15th, a week ago yesterday, was at $1984, so let's not panic just yet. SPX is still within the trading channel of the past few weeks. The 50 dma is at $1976, so that is a good "line in the sand" to watch.

RUT is continuing to trade much weaker than SPX, and that does concern me. RUT closed at $1119, down $11. RUT hit a low of $1115 on August 1st, the most recent pull back in the markets, so today's close is nearing that recent low. RUT has also traded much more bearishly this week, gapping downward at the open both yesterday and today.

The NASDAQ composite has also fallen significantly during the last three trading sessions, but has held up much better than RUT. NASDAQ closed at $4509 today, down $19 on flat trading volume. Similar to SPX, today's close on NASDAQ was close to its close on 9/15 at $4519.

Trading volume doesn't appear to support the sky is falling case; two billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks traded today and that was flat with yesterday and only slightly above the 50 dma at 1.87 billion shares. Trading on the NYSE was down 2% and trading volume on NASDAQ was down 2%.

Volatility is starting to move higher. The VIX closed today at 14.9%, up 1.2 points.

My iron condor positions are holding up well. The Oct SPX position is up 11% with short puts at $1870. The Nov SPX position is up 7% with short puts at $1820. I allowed extra safety margin for these positions and that is paying off.

I will be watching this market closely, but I think it is early to get too excited. I am taking the opportunity to look for stocks that are holding up well in this down draft. IBD moved to "Uptrend Under Pressure" yesterday.