Japan is up 1.79%, but they go their own way.

Europe is flat to midday.

Globex S&P 500 is up 2 points at 6 AM.

At quarter end there is some buying of winners and selling of losers by fund managers, then an unwinding right after.

Consumer confidence comes out at 10 AM.  It does not correlate with consumer spending.  Consumer income correlates with spending, not a sentiment number like consumer confidence or the Michigan consumer confidence number.

The Case Shiller Housing index comes out at 9 AM.  Expected to show an 18%  drop.

The Chicago PMI comes out at 9:45.  The purchasing managers index, expected to be 34.9,  still shows deep contraction of manufacturing.  The national number comes out in a few days.

If they are away from consensus, that could move the market.

Cue up the hyperanalysis, there’s some VIX OTM call trading going on……

The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is down .28 to 20.88, as the S&P 500 (.SPX) has traded in a relatively narrow 10 point range Tuesday. The S&P 500 is nearly unchanged midday. In the options market, VIX July 42.5 calls are the day’s most actively traded contract, with more almost 87K traded. A lot of that volume is due to ratio spread trading, where a strategist was apparently bought 4 July 42 calls for every 1 (short) July 32.5 call. More than 25K July 32.5 calls have also traded today. They paid $1 per 1×4, according to a contact on the floor. The position is tied to VIX futures at 32.6 (might be a roll of long calls).

….If you are interested in more info like this, check out WhatsTrading.com