The markets ended mixed today, with two distinct parts of the session: up in the morning and down in the afternoon.

The morning rally failed right at yesterday's highs. Resistance was formidable today, and they rolled over. Late in the session they did re-test yesterday's lows, but held there as well, and then had a late bounce that took them off the lows for the session.

Net on the day the Dow was up just 12.60, the S&P 500 down 2 cents, and the Nasdaq 100 managed to get back into the plus column on the late rally, up 2.05. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 5.44 today, leading the NDX lower.

Advance-declines were positive on New York, by less than 200 issues, and negative on Nasdaq by nearly 2 to 1. Up/down volume was a little less than 3 to 2 negative on New York and 5 to 4 negative on Nasdaq. Total volume was about 1.3 billion on New York and a little less than 1.9 bill on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly mixed. There were some point-plus gainers, mostly in the solar energy and shipping groups. Akeena Solar (AKNS) was up another 2.15 today, 2 points off the high, on 22 1/2 million shares. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) advanced 1.23 in that group. Hoku Scientific (HOKU) had a terrific day, setting a new all-time high at 14.88, closing at 14.19, up 1.71 on 10.7 million. Solarfun (SOLF) soared early in the morning, was up as much as 4, but gave back most of it. It was up only 96 cents at the close, on 8.6 million shares.

Global Solutions (GSOL) snapped back 1.64 today, and DryShips (DRYS) up 1.26.

Among the large fractional gainers, PEIX gained 70 cents, Also in the solar energy group, Evergreen Solar (ESLR) was up 60 cents, and China Technology Development (CTDC) 65 cents.

On the downside, FSIN was down 1.45. That was the only point-plus loser on my board today. DG FastChannel (DGIT) lost 78 cents, and China Sunergy (CSUN) was down 57 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, upside progress failed at resistance today, but the afternoon down move held at support.

So we're still in a trading range over the last couple sessions, in the 2040-67 zone on the NDX & the 1442-1458 zone on the SPX.

Those are the levels to keep an eye on over the next few days.

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.