The equity markets still appear to be following the inverse relationship with the dollar; they opened down this morning as the dollar strengthened but then rallied as the dollar weakened later in the day. The SPX closed at $1326, up $5 while the RUT blew ahead for the second day with a $10 increase to close at $831. Trading volume continues to be weak with 2.6 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading today. Trading volume on the NYSE was down 9% and was unchanged on NASDAQ.

Economic news was mediocre and certainly unable to generate much enthusiasm with traders. GDP growth for the first quarter was estimated at +1.8% but an increase of 2.0% was expected by analysts. Initial unemployment claims increased by 10k from last week at 424k while the continuing unemployment claims dropped to 3.69 million from last week's 3.74M.

My June iron condor on RUT stands at a P/L of +$2,416 with delta = -$27 and theta =+$26. The big question with this market is whether it can sustain a rally given the normal slow down in the markets during the summer and the ending of quantitative easing by the Fed. That seems like a prescription for a sideways trading environment at best and maybe a bearish trend at worst. But whenever we all think the answer is obvious, the market will surprise us.