The initial jobless claims data this morning was a little discouraging with another increase to 460k from last week's 442k, but the continuing claims total decreased from 4.681 to 4.550 million. The markets opened up weakly but then slowly climbed throughout the day to end nearly unchanged or with small gains. RUT closed unchanged at $700 after trading as low as $692. SPX gained $4 to close at $1186 after trading as low as $1175. This is actually a very bullish sign; it shows that whenever the prices drop very much at all, there are plenty of buyers that view those prices as bargains. So while there isn't sufficient incentive to buy strongly and drive the market higher, there isn't a strong bearish case either. Trading volume dropped across the board today with a 10% drop on the NYSE, and an 18% drop on NASDAQ. Trading on the S&P 500 stocks dropped back below its 50 day moving average. Minimal economic news is expected tomorrow but earnings announcements from the blue chips start next week with Alcoa on Monday and Intel on Tuesday. Those reports may push this market one way or the other.

My Apr condor is winding down and now stands at a P/L of -$625, delta = -$155 and theta = +$296. May's position stands at P/L of +$660, delta = -$58 and theta = +$74.