Back to the upside as the Dow gained 61 points on light volume.  The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive.  You can make your case either way here for the stock indices but I now believe we are heading higher.  The summation index is about to turn around.  The TRAN continues to make new all time highs.  I'm guessing that the earnings coming out will be viewed as positive.  I'll probably wait for the September option cycle to try the OEX puts.  GE was pretty much flat on the day as it tries to hold on to the 200 day moving average.  No trades in GE for now.  Gold lost $7 on the futures as the US dollar was higher on the day.  The XAU was off 1 1/8.  ABX and GG fell 1/4 or so, NEM was up a nickel.  Volume was pretty light.  No interest in buying the gold shares here but no real selling either.  Earnings due next week.  I'm still trying to remain patient with the gold shares for now.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  Some tech bellwethers report after the close today and that will probably set the tone for tomorrows open.  The big cap stock indices are short term overbought but the small caps (RUT) have room to move higher based on the technicals.  I think that a drift higher for now is in order.  If that does occur on light volume, we then may have a set up for the OEX puts.  However when the summation index dropped recently and prices didn't follow, it leads me to believe that we have just completed a consolidation before moving higher once again.  I could be wrong.  Gold is in a holding pattern for now.  We had a nice run higher.  Then we had a couple of days that wiped out around 40% of the gains.  It looks like things could go either way from here.  Once again, patience is the key here.  We'll watch the earnings in the aftermarket and see what happens overseas later tonight.