The markets continue to trade largely sideways and maybe slightly downward as everyone is focused on the inept people who run our government. The real tragedy is that we can no longer trust anyone in politics; they spin the truth so as to suit their objectives. This is also true of corporate management in general. In this age of political correctness, the end justifies the means.

The VIX closed at 20% today - not terribly high if there was much real fear in the markets. But I think the uncertainty is sufficient to keep the big players on the sidelines until they see some clearer picture of the future. SPX spent most of the day trading sideways in choppy fashion, and then sold off a bit at the close at $1332, down $5. RUT lost $7 to close at $825. Trading volume was up from yesterday, with 2.8 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading; this is right at the 50 dma. Trading volume on the NYSE was down 9% and was also down 9% on NASDAQ.

The Case Schiller housing price index declined 4.5% in May but the consumer confidence index moved up slightly to 59.5 for June from 57.6 in May. New home sales came in at 312 thousand for June, essentially unchanged form the the previous month.

My Aug iron condor on RUT has a current P/L of +$2,102 with delta = -$23 and theta = +$74. My Sept iron condor stands at break-even with delta = -$47 and theta = +$71. The dithering is good for us delta neutral traders.