Hanging around waiting on the inflation data was the story of today as the Dow added 123 points on what passes for average volume lately. The advance/declines were about even. The summation index is barely moving higher. It was a mixed bag as the NASDAQ posted a small loss, while the S&P 500 finished flat. The short term indicators for the S&P are tracking sideways but that should end tomorrow as we will no doubt see price movement off of the inflation report. Which way is always the question and I think that we'll be heading higher. You can make a case for either direction though and with no clear technical signal I'll have to remain on the sidelines here when it comes to the to the SPY options. Gold was off $7 on the futures. The US dollar was lower and interest rates ticked up. The XAU dropped 2 3/4, while GDX slipped 1/2. Volume was light. I did place another overnight order for the GDX February puts but it wasn't filled and I canceled it during the session. GDX remains short term overbought and extended to the upside. I may be too late for this trade if things head south tomorrow on the inflation data. However if the markets rally and gold goes with it, I still might try the GDX puts here. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX ended with a small gain. Still in the short term oversold for some of the indicators. Bollinger bands contracting here and I'm not sure where the VIX goes next. Tomorrow will probably provide us with some answers. Asia was generally lower and Europe higher overnight. We'll see what tomorrow brings.