Negative price action to begin option expiration week as the Dow fell 164 points on light volume. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 negative. The summation index is now barely moving higher. We were hoping for the market to hold up in front of Wednesdays inflation data but that isn't going to happen. The short term indicators for the S&P 500 are starting to roll over. Today the NASDAQ led the way down. We are going to learn a lot about where we're going this week. If things can hold in there, we'll be seeing higher prices moving forward. But if we drop this week it's probably the start of another wave down and the bear market will continue. Stay tuned. Gold dropped a dozen on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates were lower. The XAU fell 1 1/3, while GDX shed 3/8. Volume was light. I'm still looking at the August and September GDX calls. Waiting on the longer term signal for this idea. May or may not occur. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX popped up and the short term indicators here turned back up. My feeling is that the VIX could go either way here but we'll see. 2nd quarter earnings start this week and that will be another driver of stock prices. For now it's all about the inflation report on Wednesday. The recent light volume is both a sign of summer trading and the lack of conviction among the players. Europe was down and so was Asia with the exception of Japan. We'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.