There is some pressure across the board today with markets reacting to ADP data as they look ahead to the Friday jobs report. The Chicago PMI for August also came out today at 51.5, nothing very compelling there. The trading range is still incredibly tight and volume is seriously lacking.

Oil has been clobbered by a strong report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Crude inventories were up by 2.3 million barrels vs. 900k expected. Gasoline production fell leading to the build in crude stockpiles. Oil is off about 3% and energy stocks are weighing on the market.

NYSE decliners lead the way (68%) on 80% down volume. The NASDAQ is testing support around 5200 which has held up for most of August. The Dow chart looks very similar with 18.250 area serving as similar support.  It has been a long slow August and this last day of the month looks like it will close out in the same fashion.