The futures were positive this morning and the market opened upward, but within just a few minutes, the carnage began. SPX dropped to $1235 before rebounding and then slowly gained in late afternoon trade to close up $6 at $1260. RUT followed a similar pattern, closing up $6 at $773. Trading volume was huge at 4.2 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks. The last time we saw volumes this high was at the lows hit in mid-March this year. Trading volume was up 11% on the NYSE today; trading was up 9% on NASDAQ. Every major market index closed with a gain today.

The economic data reported today was mixed. ADP's private employment report cited 114k new jobs, but the report of new layoffs from Challenger, Gray and Christmas rose for the third month in succession, with an increase of 59% for July compared to July, 2010. The July ISM Services Index declined a bit to 52.7 for July (53.3 in June), while factory orders declined 0.8% in June. The bottom line for all of this data is either evidence of a double dip or, at best, continued weakness in the economy.

The VIX spurted up to over 25% this morning, but declined to close at 23.4%. There isn't much to report on my condor positions. Both the Aug and Sept condors consist of only the 670/680 put spreads, which appear safe enough now, but that wasn't obvious as RUT appeared to be in free fall this morning, hitting $750 before rebounding. Now we wait to see if we have simply matched the mid-March lows, or are lower lows in store?