I'd have to call today a typical boring, dull Friday summer day.  The indices had their best moments earlier on.  Despite the fact they opened slightly lower, they turned around and rallied nicely within the first half hour.  The S&P rallied back to Wednesday's rally highs up near the 1225-26 zone, which was resistance, and the Nasdaq 100 managed to get up to 1582, which was somewhat below resistance.

So the Nasdaq trailed early on, and when that occurred the indices, starting just before the lunch hour, sold off for most of the afternoon in stair-step fashion with the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 closing very near the lows of the day.

Net on the day the Dow was up a paltry 4.23. The S&P was up 0.69, the Nasdaq 100 was down 2.04, and the SOX was up 0.99.  So, as you can see it was an extremely narrow day at the close, but the indices did close near the low end of the range if not at the lows.

The technicals were positive by 18 to 14 1/2 on New York. Up/down volume was positive by a little less than 6 to 5. Total volume was about 1.18 billion on New York and a like amount on Nasdaq, which had a 6 to 5 negative ratio on volume and a 15 to 14 positive ratio on advance-declines.

TheTechTrader.com board was fairly dull except for a few issues.  On the plus side, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), a former Chart of the Week of ours, advanced 2.43 on 7 1/2 million shares to a new multi-year high.  Rediff.com India (REDF) exploded for about 3 points earlier in the session, and closed up 1.79 on 2.4 million shares.  Cutera (CUTR) was up 91 cents and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) up 70 cents.

On the downside Catuity (CTTY) despite advancing sharply this morning to as high as 18 1/4, reversed lower the rest of the day and closed down 2.63 at 14.60, a big reversal day there.

Other stocks of note on the downside, Meadow Valley (MVCO) was down 87 cents, Distributed Energy Systems (DESC) 32 cents, Intel (INTC) off 23 cents, and the Qs and SMH off just 2 cents on the day.

It was pretty narrow for most stocks other than the few we mentioned.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices closed near the lows for the week on the Nasdaq 100 but somewhat above them on the S&P.  Support at 1574 NDX was severely tested in the last three days, but held all three days, and we'll see if that's the case on Monday.

Options expired today.  We'll see how they unwind after the weekend.

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.