Trading was choppy at the open this morning and weakened as the day progressed. SPX closed down $9 at $1361 while RUT gave up $11 to close at $855. The VIX increased a bit to 15.99%, still pretty low for the past several years. The ISM manufacturing index came out at 60.4 for April; this was a drop from last month, but beat expectations. Construction spending was up 1.4% for March while analysts expected no change. Trading volume in the S&P 500 dropped to 3.0 billion shares, well below Friday's volume and below the 50 dma. Trading on the NYSE increased 4% and dropped 15% on NASDAQ. Meanwhile oil remains high at over $113/bbl and gold keeps setting new highs. It seems inconsistent to me that the "flight to safety" continues in gold at the same time that the stock market is soaring. Perhaps this simply shows the effects of the Fed's QE II. If so, what happens when that program ends?

The pull back by RUT took a lot of the pressure off my May and June iron condor positions. My May condor now stands at a P/L of +$212, with a position delta = -$63 and theta = +$99. The June condor is still hedged with July calls and stands at a P/L of -$1,744 with delta = -$40 and theta = +$58. We'll see what tomorrow brings.