Traders opened the markets this morning in slightly positive territory and expanded the gains in the afternoon to basically return to where we started Monday morning before the S&P debt warning scared traders. SPX closed up $7 at $1313, the same as yesterday's opening price. RUT closed up $2 at $823. Trading volume declined from yesterday with 3.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading; the 50 dma = 3.3B. Trading volume on the NYSE was down 20% and was down 7% on NASDAQ. Gold traded above $1500 for the first time today as traders continue to seek refuge from sovereign debt  and global unrest. S&P's warning shot yesterday probably fueled this move to gold, but equity traders were unpersuaded.

Housing starts came in at an annualized number of 549k for March and housing permits came in at 594k; both figures were better than analysts expected.

My May iron condor on RUT is positioned at 720/730, 890/900, and 920/930 and continues to build gains with a P/L of +$612 and delta = +$10 and theta = +$46. This is a slow economic news week, so the markets will primarily be driven by earnings announcements. One of the biggest to watch will be Apple Computer, after the close tomorrow.