The news is filled with negativity: European debt woes, raucous debt negotiations in Washington, persistent unemployment.  But so far in this earnings season, corporate balance sheets look pretty good. What is a trader to do? Today's trading seemed to reflect that indecision today, chopping back and forth all day; but the bulls took a run at it during the last hour and managed to close the day with positive results on all of the major indexes. It appears this market's bias is to the upside. A resolution to the debt negotiations in DC could be the trigger.

The market's mood wasn't helped with a negative Empire manufacturing survey result and a large decline in the Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey from last month's 71.5 to 63.8 for July. And the uncertainty surrounding the continued deadlock in Washington is weighing on the market.

My Aug iron condor on RUT at 670/680 and 890/900 stands at a P/L of +$962 with a position delta of -$64 and theta = +$88. The July condor's put spreads expire worthless this weekend.

Have a great weekend.