Sorry to steal the jam out of the media pundit's donut but the better-than-average volume that is supposedly representative of something today in fact is solely due to the surge that occurred when we sold off into the European close and when Bernanke was dancing around Senatorial questions about stock market bubbles. It appears once again this afternoon that US equity algos have forgotten that Europe will open once again in 8 hours.
[2]
When Europe closed (at the lows) volume was 1.79mm contracts against an average of 1.1mm or 62% above average.
Now it is 2.5mm versus 1.7mm average - only 47% above average.
Charts: Bloomberg