Lower to begin options expiration week as the US/Iran conflict has once again taken center stage. The Dow lost 138 points on light volume. The advance/declines were negative. The summation index is moving sideways. Markets are now held hostage by headline risk as whatever cease-fire agreement that there was isn't working. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted decent losses with the NASDAQ leading the way. Inflation data out tomorrow and we expect it to show a decline. However if some war news breaks out overnight it may not matter. Some of the short term indicators for the S&P have turned lower and it remains in short term overbought territory. The new all time highs on the S&P 500 that I am looking for won't happen if we continue down from here. Gold got clobbered to start the week as the futures fell over a hundred bucks. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU dropped around 7 1/2, while GDX lost 2 1/8. Volume was a bit below average. The short term indicators for GDX rolled back over in oversold territory. It is trying to hold on to the 73 level. My GDX July calls are dead. GDX has simply continued to stay oversold without anything more than a minor bounce. I thought about getting some more calls today at a lower strike price ahead of the inflation data due out but did not. The US/Iran conflict flare up has changed the trading environment. However my management of the trade was wrong as it did show a profit that I did not take early on. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX jumped up today which fits a down market. The short term indicators here have turned up. If the VIX continues to rise it will spell more trouble for stocks. The new Fed chairman will be speaking to Congress in the morning for the next two days. That could influence where stocks are going as well. So it should be an interesting week despite the light volume that we've seen lately. Asia was mixed and Europe barely higher to begin the week. We'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.