Today's tone was best summarized by taking a look at the Treasury bond market: it was bid on for most of the day as investors fled to quality and bought government paper.

Stocks were in the red for much of the day but closed flat.

The weakness was particularly felt in credit spreads for bank and financial bonds.

There was heavy cash bond BWIC (bids wanted in competition) list activity.

The level of BWIC activity today was more than the past few weeks combined as real money investors looked to sell chunky positions in bank and financial bonds.

Today was the first day in a few weeks where institutional real money accounts were selling bonds, mainly financials.

On the macroeconomic front, the NFIB Small Business Optimism survey pointed to weakness among small and medium-sized business enterprises and retail sales numbers were disappointing.

Much of the stimulus activity and bail-out money that was spent since 2008 favored large corporations to the detriment of small and medium-sized businesses.

The weakness in the NFIB reading explains why unemployment remains a problem: small and medium sized enterprises provide the bulk of employment in the world's largest economy.

On the Brussels front, a scheduled meeting for European finance chiefs on Wednesday was delayed as work on a Greek rescue package remains incomplete.

Is this where the rally finally turns?

The market will likely continue to take its cue from European headlines but once it becomes apparent that Europe's problems run deeper than Greece, the markets could veer to the left (lower).

The Euro traded down to close at 1.31 against the U.S. dollar.

Oil remains well bid at $100 a barrel as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East heat up.

Empire Manufacturing figures for New York and the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) minutes are out on Wednesday.