It was a narrowly mixed session. The indices started out with a gap down and for the rest of the morning bounced around in what looked like consolidative fashion.  However, when the indices twice tested the lows for the day and held support near the weekly lows, the indices then staged a sharp rebound rally that filled the opening gap, ran right to the declining tops resistance and price resistance, and then they sold off sharply to retest the lows.

But they held once again and bounced again into the last hour or so without breaking.

Net on the day the Dow was up 4.22, the S&P down 1.22, the Nasdaq 100 down 6.53, and the SOX down 2.87.

The technicals were more negative than price would indicate.  Advance-declines were 20 to 12 negative on New York and about 18 to 11 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was nearly 2 to 1 negative on New York with a total of about 1 1/3 billion traded. Nasdaq traded over 1.4 billion with about a 2 to 1 negative ratio as well on up/down volume.

So, the underpinnings of the market indicated a much more negative market than the actual indices showed at the close.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed as well.  There were some outstanding momentum plays today.  Catuity (CTTY), which exploded last month and gave back most of it, has been running again recently and added another 5.33 on 3.8 million shares today.  Myogen (MYOG), the star of the day on drug news, was up 8.13 on 25.6 million shares, a phenomenal day, most of that on the initial gap-up at the opening.

ViroPharma (VPHM), which has had a phenomenal move in the last month, continued today by making a new rally high near 15, closing at 14.87, up 1.35 on nearly 7 million shares.

Other stocks of note, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) was up 43 cents and Distributed Energy System (DESC) up 43 cents.

On the downside, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) was very volatile today.  It got hit early, then rallied sharply, then gave it back again, losing 1.41 on the day.  Nvidia (NVDA) lost 78 cents, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) dropped 78 cents, Forward Industries (FORD) 80 cents, Netflix (NFLX) 48 cents and Universal Display Panel (PANL) 41 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the two-week downtrend is intact, as today's rally attempt failed at resistance, right at the declining moving averages, which has been pretty much the case for the last couple weeks.

However, intraday support held.  We'll be watching today's lows at around 1573 on the NDX and 1216 S&P to see if we can hold them and rally or whether they take them out.  Right now the trend is down, and it appears they may go lower before it's all over.

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.