The markets ended up mixed, and the action today vacillated in fairly narrow ranges. They tried to rally this morning, failed at resistance at yesterday's highs and at the six-day declining tops line. They then moved lower mid-day, bounced late morning and early afternoon, forming double-bottoms, making only slightly lower lows before rallying, but failed to break out and backed off into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was down a little more than 25, the S&P 500 a little less than 2, and the Nasdaq 100 up 1.50. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 0.56, so you can see a very narrow change today.

Technicals were mixed but lower, only slightly so. Advance-declines were negative by abut 400 issues on New York and by only about 22 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 7 to 5 negative on New York and nearly flat on Nasdaq. Total volume was bout 1.8 billion on Nasdaq and about 1.3 billion New York.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed, as you might imagine, but there were several point-plus gainers, however. One of our old favorites DG FastChannel (DGIT) on an excellent earnings report and upward guidance jumped 3 1/2 on 1.2 million. China Natural Resources (CHNR) jumped as high as 4 1/2 points at one point, but closed up 2 on the day on nearly 1 million.

PEIX had a big percentage gain, the fifth leading Nasdaq gainer today, 1.39, or 18%.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) gained 1.88, as did Solarfun (SOLF).

Shippers were mixed, with DryShips (DRYS) down 3.75 and Excel Maritime (EXM) down 1.08, but TBS International (TBSI) up 86 cents.

Other losers included Canadian Solar (CSIQ), which jumped to as high as 28.68 earlier in the day but closed at 26, down 88 cents, a negative reversal session there. But Ascent Solar (ASTI) was up 75 cents, and China Sunergy (CSUN), one of our Charts of the Week, had an excellent day, up 94 cents on 5.5 million shares.

Most other stocks on our board were up or down just small fractions today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the Nasdaq 100 continues to try to stabilize, base out and now has formed a 2 1/2 day head and shoulders type basing pattern, but key overhead resistance at 2040-41 needs to be taken out for that to be completed.

Similarly, on the S&P 500 the level of resistance remains around the 1464-65 zone. Those are the key levels of resistance that we'll be watching to see if the indices can breakout and reverse the downtrend.

But until that occurs, the downtrend is still in force, now extended to 6+ sessions (since the last FOMC announcement).

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.