The markets opened strong this morning and just kept on climbing through most of the day. The major indexes gave back some of their gains in the late afternoon, but still closed for significant gains. The SPX broke through the 50 dma at $1088 and even tried to break through the next resistance level at $1100 before being turned back and closing at $1093, for a gain of $13. RUT behaved similarly, trading as high as $630 before closing at $626 for a gain of $11. Home Depot posted better than expected earnings and Wal Mart posted in-line earnings; those results may have helped the overall market mood. Economic data was mixed to positive with a 1.7% increase in housing starts for July, but building permits dropped 3.1%. Industrial production increased 1.0% while the PPI increased 0.2%.

Trading volume increased with today's rally. The S&P 500 stocks traded 3.4 billion shares, up from yesterday but still below the 50 dma at 3.8 billion shares. Trading jumped 23% on the NYSE and increased 8% on the NASDAQ. Today's market action was rather bullish, with SPX breaking a significant resistance level on higher volume. If you are a directional trader, I would be cautious about going "all in", but perhaps we will avoid going over the cliff for a "double dip".

Today's gains strengthened my Aug condor position, resulting in a P/L of +$383 with delta = $43 and theta = +$438. The Sept condor sits at a P/L of +$1,260 with delta = +$26 and theta = +$61.