Alcoa's earnings report disappointed many traders last night and reinforced the fears of some that the economic recovery is fragile at best. But by mid-morning, the market started recovering its losses and closed the day with modest gains. RUT closed up $2 at $707 while the SPX gained $1 to close at $1197. Trading volume was up significantly across the board with an 11% increase on the NYSE, a 24% increase on NASDAQ and trading on the S&P 500 rose back up to hit its 50 day moving average. Today's market action demonstrates the underlying bullish strength of this market when the bears take the market down and the bulls can bring it all the way back in the same session. Today's market rise was partially in anticipation of an expected positive earnings report from Intel after the close (earnings were up significantly and INTC is up about $1 in after market trading). JP Morgan Chase reports tomorrow morning before the open and the CPI reports will be out in the morning; the Fed's beige book comes out tomorrow afternoon. All of these news events are potentially market moving, but it is hard to predict the direction.

My April RUT iron condor is limping into the final lap with a P/L of -$849, delta = -$237 and theta = +$727. With such a large position theta, each day makes a large difference in this position's P/L. The double calendar I added to this position isn't helping much at this point, with RUT's IV down a couple of points and RUT at the upper breakeven for the double calendar. The May condor stands at a P/L of +$600, delta = -$77 and theta = +$85.