Moving higher today as the Dow gained 81 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were slightly negative. The summation index is still moving lower. The overall market did much better than the Dow. The NASDAQ was up 1 1/4%, while the S&P 500 posted a decent gain. Earnings were the main driver today. The short term indicators for the S&P are moving higher with room to go. I still like the idea of the SPY August puts again ahead of the inflation data next Tuesday. The timing of when to purchase them will be the key. Gold was off a buck today. The US dollar was lower and interest rates finished little changed except on the long end. The XAU rose 3 points and GDX gained 7/8. Volume was light. GDX has gotten to short term overbought and may need a rest. The gold shares have followed the market higher while gold itself has stalled. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was down today and the short term indicators are heading lower. This implies more gains for stocks in the coming sessions. I guess what we'd like to see now is a new all time high for the S&P with a lower RSI reading. That would set us up to try the SPY puts. However as you all know markets rarely cooperate with the best laid plans that we have. Europe and Asia were up with the exception of India. We'll watch for any overnight developments.