A positive start for the new year but we did fall off of the early highs.  The Dow rose 119 points on average volume.  The advance/declines were 3 to 1 positive.  This should move the summation index higher.  The overall market was stronger than the Dow.  I'm still looking for Dow 20000 in the beginning of the year here.  I don't think that it will be a straight line though.  My SPY January calls are now at a slight profit.  I think that they can be held until next week but we'll have to see how the market goes.  The short term technical indicators are starting to move back up for the S&P 500.  GE was up a few cents on average volume.  Indicators here are starting to move back up as well.  Gold gained $8 on the futures and the US dollar was higher as well.  The XAU added 3 1/8, while GDX was higher by over 3/4.  Volume was good.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  It looks like we have got some beginning of the month money flows today.  I do expect some near term strength going into Fridays jobs report.  The employment numbers should determine where we go from there.  I think that there's room to move up here but we could go back into a sideways pattern as well.  I do not think that there is a big decline coming for now.  The VIX is coming down off of an overbought condition too.  So I think that the path of least resistance for now is up.  Europe and Asia were generally higher overnight.  We'll see how the 2nd trading day of the year goes tomorrow.