Higher to close out the month of August as the Dow rallied 228 points on average volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index continues higher. The NASDAQ was back to leading the way up. The inflation data came in where expected. The S&P 500 is just shy of new all time highs. It remains short term overbought. My guess is that we'll probably hit new all time highs on the S&P after the long holiday weekend. One of the concerns here is the lagging of the NASDAQ, which isn't close to a new all time high. But we'll worry about that next week. Gold fell $25 on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates were up just a bit. The XAU dropped a point and GDX shed 1/4. Volume was light. The short term indicators for GDX are heading lower but it isn't a sharp drop. I'm still considering the September calls there if we make it down to oversold. Mentally I'm feeling a bit tired. The VIX was lower and is still short term oversold. We are expecting the VIX to move lower as the market moves higher in the beginning of next week. It is still above its 200 day moving average which will be a key area to watch. If the VIX heads below there any rally will have legs. All the players should be back on Tuesday so we will begin to have a more complete picture of things. Still remaining patient for now. Asia was up and Europe slightly lower to finish the week and month. I'll have an extra day to go over the charts this weekend. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.