Markets opened this morning, gapping higher after yesterday's strong performance. SPX closed up $23 at $2075 and RUT closed at $1166, up $12. Volatility remained flat with the VIX unchanged at 14.5%. Trading volume remained above average but dropped from yesterday's highs with 2.8 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume dropped 5% on the NYSE and was unchanged on NASDAQ.

There is no question that the bulls are firmly in charge of this market. The question in my mind is this: Are we returning to a strong bull market as we saw in 2013? Or is this more like earlier this year where the bulls aggressively bought every dip, but couldn't achieve a string of higher highs?

Evidence for a more constrained market posture comes from the Russell 2000 Index, made up of classic small cap stocks. These stocks lead bull markets higher and also are the first to be sold as the markets turn downward. RUT's chart is much weaker than SPX. When the markets bounced from the August 25 lows, they hit a high in mid-September before turning lower to retest support. SPX blew past those levels on October 7th, but RUT has yet to get back to those mid-September highs. Hmm...

Enjoy your weekend.