Another mixed bag as the Dow gained 162 points on light volume. The advance/declines were slightly positive. The summation index is moving sideways. The NASDAQ posted a loss today while the S&P 500 had a small gain. The S&P remains short term overbought. I did place an order for the SPY August puts, modified it several times and never did get filled. I might try this idea tomorrow if we get a rally on the inflation data but I'm not really looking for that to happen. The market is slow and churning here. Running out of time in the August option cycle with only 8 days to go. Gold dropped a couple bucks on the December contract. Interest rates continued to move higher along with the US dollar. The XAU and GDX had fractional losses on average volume. GDX is now short term oversold but I'm in no hurry until it gets to the 31 level which is a point away. Even then is just might continue to go lower but that's the spot that I'll take a serious look at the October calls there. Mentally I'm feeling a bit frustrated since I did want to have a put position ahead of the inflation reports. But it doesn't matter now. There's also a part of me that says wait until the players return after summer break. The VIX was just slightly higher today and remains oversold on a short term basis. I suppose we'll just wait and see now how the market reacts to tomorrows data. Europe and Asia were higher overnight. We'll keep an eye on tonights headlines.