The markets opened up in positive territory and chopped sideways, but retained positive gains all day. It appeared that traders decided the crisis in Egypt was not the threat to global markets that was feared on Friday. The huge jump in the Chicago PMI probably was a factor as well. Its value for December came in at 68.8; this is the highest level for this index since 1988.

SPX closed at $1286, a rise of $10 and RUT gained $6 to close at $781. Trading volume was down from Friday; 3.5 billion shares of  S&P stocks traded today; although this was down from Friday, it remains above the 50 dma. Trading volume on the NYSE dropped 16% and decreased 18% on NASDAQ. Today's gain on SPX confirmed a 2.3% increase for the month of January; this is the first positive gain for the month of January on SPX since 2007. Many analysts believe January's performance foretells the performance for the year; I'm not sure I believe that, but it does set a tone for traders at a minimum.

My Feb iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of +$2,580 with delta = +$18 and theta = +$65. My Mar iron condor on RUT at 690/700 and 875/885 stands at a P/L of -$140 with delta = +$17 and theta = +$56.