The jobs report this morning prompted a positive market opening, but it didn't last long before bears were selling strongly and market observers were spooked. For the last two days, the price action has taken the indexes into "uncharted territory" - yes, analysts were pulling up various old support levels and so on. My point is that most of the support levels we traders were focused on were simply passed by without even a pause. It left many traders mentally disoriented. SPX opened and ran up to $1218 before plunging to $1168. Then SPX started recovering in the early afternoon and closed essentially at its open at $1199, down less than a dollar on the day. RUT was much more bearish, closing down $12 to $715.

The non-farm payroll report cited a gain of 117k jobs, up significantly from last month's anemic rise of 46 thousand jobs. This came as a surprise to most analysts and boosted the market, but only momentarily. The unemployment rate dropped a bit to 9.1% from 9.2% - I'm not sure if the underlying data are accurate enough to make that difference meaningful, but at least it is in the right direction. Next week, we have the FOMC meeting and traders will be even more attentive than usual, given this week's carnage in the markets. Traders will also be watching European bank and finance ministers this weekend, searching for reassurance that the European debt problems don't cascade into global financial issues.

I rolled my Aug 670/680 put spreads down to 650/660. That reduces the profit potential for the Aug position, but we still have the potential for a reasonable gain. The hedge for the Sept put spreads is holding that position's P/L in check very well. So our potential gains in the Sept position are still largely intact.

This has been a crazy week in the markets. Let's all collectively relax and enjoy the weekend. I'm going to start with a nice dinner with family and friends.