Buyers showed up today as the Dow gained 238 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were around 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is beginning to stall again. The NASDAQ led the way and that's positive. The S&P 500 had a decent gain and the short term indicators here have turned up. But we are still in an event driven environment so things change in a hurry. That goes for both directions. Yesterdays climb to back above the 6800 level is encouraging for the bulls though. With the technical indicators still hovering around mid-range we don't have any clear signal here yet. Gold was up $23 on the futures. The US dollar was lower and interest rates higher. The XAU was up 2 points and GDX added 1/2. Volume was a bit below average. The short term indicators here are beginning to move sideways at around the mid-range level. I have placed another open order for the GDX March puts and I'm leaving it out there. Ideally we'd like to see another light volume move higher in order to buy the puts. Markets rarely cooperate. There is an up trend line for GDX that began last November and remains intact. It comes in at the 101 level. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today but remains above the 20 level. The short term indicators on the VIX have turned lower. It is possible that the rise in the VIX is over as it reached 28 this week. But in a news driven market like the one we're in now, anything goes. Combine that with a lack of a good technical signal and you can see what we're up against. Asian markets had steep losses led by Korea. Europe was higher. I'll keep an eye on tonights headlines.