For four days now, the market is closing weak after showing intraday strength. Market players are aggressively selling the upside spikes and that is producing some very unhealthy action. It is often said that the "dumb money" acts at the open and the "smart money" acts at the close, which makes these strong opens and weak finishes rather worrisome. Adding to the negative picture, the S&P 500 is back below its 50-day simple moving average.
While technical support levels look precarious, it is all about the headline news lately.
Good earnings from YUM Brands ($YUM) and J.P. Morgan ($JPM) couldn’t trump worries about the DC debt drama and Bernanke’s tossing cold water on QE3. 
Jobless Claims data were marginally better than expected but still over 400K for the 14^th week in a row. Retail Sales were flat to lower and the PPI headline number was amazingly lower. Even more amazing was that the “core” PPI rate was higher.
Today is options expiration for Julyand  this can have an effect. Economic data will feature the CPI, The Empire State Manufacturing Survey, Industrial Production and Consumer Sentiment. That’s plenty by itself to cause more volatility. We’ll also get earnings from  Citigroup ($C).