The markets opened up positively this morning but dropped after being hit with the news that Standard and Poors downgraded Spain's debt. The markets then largely just chopped sideways, but strengthened a bit just before and after the FOMC announcement that interest rates would remain unchanged. Then the sideways march resumed until the last hour when the markets sold off. Trading volume was generally down today with a 14% drop on the NYSE and a 3% drop on NASDAQ. Trading of the S&P 500 was down a bit from yesterday's huge volume, but still above average at about 5 billion shares. Late in the day, RUT gave back all of the day's gains to close at $722, up $1. SPX was able to recover from the late sell off a little better and closed with an $8 gain at $1191. The recent attention given to the debt problems of some of the European countries has the bulls reconsidering their posture. But most of the economic news and earnings announcements in the US markets have been positive - thus, the choppy sideways market today.

My May iron condor on RUT remains unchanged with a P/L of -$1,420, delta = -$43, and theta = +$150 - a very healthy theta/delta ratio with 22 days to go.