Moving higher ahead of the inflation data as the Dow rose 170 points on light volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is trending lower. Once again the NASDAQ led the way and that is a plus for the bulls. The S&P 500 is on the cusp of a new all time high and I suspect that if the inflation report has no surprises we'll get there tomorrow. The technical picture for the S&P has the short term indicators moving up with room to go. The Bollinger bands are contracting so we could see a big move and my guess is that it will be to the upside. But this is the stock market after all so we'll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings us. No SPY trades in mind for right now. Gold was off three bucks on the futures. The US dollar was slightly lower and interest rates held steady. The XAU and GDX both finished barely negative on about average volume. GDX is short term oversold and I could make a case for trying the calls there today. I did place an open order for the GDX February calls in case we see a drop in gold tomorrow. I'm leaving it out there for now. I did not want to take the risk on the January calls but you certainly could make a case for them. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was slightly lower today. The technical picture here remains the same. A low VIX below its 50 day moving average is still implying higher stock prices. Europe and Asia finished mixed in overnight trading. We'll see how the market reacts to the inflation numbers tomorrow and take it from there.