The indices had an up day today, but it was rather sloppy and choppy, and after a decent morning rally the afternoon session gave back much of the day's gains.

The day started out with back and forth action that was a bit stronger on the Nasdaq. After the first hour, the indices staged a fairly decent rally that took them back near overhead resistance at the 1589-90 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1225-6 zone on the S&P 500. In the afternoon, they pulled back, had a mid-afternoon bounce that failed to take out highs, and then rolled over in the last hour.

They settled with gain of 37 and change for the Dow, less than a point for the S&P, and about a 1 1/4 for the Nasdaq 100. The SOX Semiconductor Index was up nearly 6, and that helped Nasdaq stay on the plus side.

Technicals were negative on New York by 17 to 14 on advance-declines and 7 to 6 on up/down volume with total volume of about 1.4 billion â€" more decliners than advancers was not a good sign on an up day for the Dow and S&P. Advance-declines were slightly positive by less than 100 issues on Nasdaq, and up/down volume was much stronger by 2 to 1 with 1.5 billion traded.

TheTechTrader.com board was very active. The leader by far was Blue Coat Sys (BCSI), which soared 7.65 on excellent earnings &  upgrades. Catuity (CTTY) was up 3.19 to 11.90 on more than 1 million traded. Another strong performer was Redif.com India (REDF), which advanced 1.64.

Other stocks of note: Genesis Microchip (GNSS) was up 55 cents, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) up 43 cents, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) advanced 28 cents, Meadow Valley (MVCO) was ahead by 58 cents, and Sirna Therapeutics (RNAI) advanced 26 cents.

On the downside, loss leaders were Dynamic Materials (BOOM) down 1.57, Forward Industries (FORD) down 1.28, and DayStar Technologies (DSTI) down 1.10. Other losses of note: Cutera (CUTR) and Georesources (GEOI), both down 76 cents, and Spire Corp. (SPIR) down 54 cents.

Reviewing the hourly chart patterns, today's rally from an oversold condition was fairly unimpressive, in my book, particularly with the technicals being flat to negative on advance-declines. Today's high around 1589-90 and 1225-26 are key to short-term resistance. We'll see if we can take them out. But right now it appears that the downtrend may not be over yet.

Good trading!

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. For more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a FREE 15-day trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary, or sign up for a Free 30-Day Trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.