The indices ended narrowly mixed today and the session patterns were very similar to Friday's. They opened firm, backed and filled and then rallied to the session highs my mid session, but were not able to do much more than nominally take out Friday's highs on the Nasdaq 100, although the S&P 500 did get up to near the late February highs. Then they sold off steadily and quite sharply in the afternoon, with the NDX dropping from 1886 down to 1856, and the S&P from 1386 down to 1369. They bounced a little bit at the close but ended narrowly mixed.

Net on the day the Dow was up just 3, the S&P 500 up 2.14, the Nasdaq 100 down 5.04, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 0,.49.

The technicals were positive on advance-declines in New York by 17 1/2 to 14 and negative on Nasdaq by 15 to 14. Up/down volume was about 8 to 5 positive on New York on total volume of a little more than 1 1/4 billion, and about 3 to 2 negative on Nasdaq on volume of a little over 1.7 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed as well Washington Mutual (WM), in particular, announcing a $5 billion financing, gained 3 on 190 million shares. Low-priced biotech Pluristem (PSTI) jumped more than 111% closing at 4.26, up 2.21, on strong drug news. China Finance Online (JRJC) advanced 1.89.

Shipping stocks were strong today, with DryShips (DRYS) up 3.20, Excel Maritime (EXM) up 1.82, and TBS International (TBSI) up 48 cents.

Eschelon Corp. (ELON) gained 53 cents, Clearwire (CLWR) 38 cents, IPCS up 48 cents, and WSCI, one of the Charts of the Week, up 1.73 today.

On the downside, solar energy stocks took it on the chin after some very strong early action. Canadian Solar (CSIQ), for example, dropped from 26 1/2 to 23.09 and change before closing at 23.72, down 1.52 on the session. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) lost 1.08, JA Solar (JASO) 1.03, and Ascent Solar (ASTI) 92 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices, as indicated before, had a very similar pattern to Friday, up early, a quick pullback in the morning and then a nice mid-morning to mid-day rally that rolled over in the afternoon and sold off the for the rest of the session, ending mixed on the session.

The indices closed right at the rising moving averages on the hourly charts and not far from Friday's late pullback low, so we'll see if they can stabilize in this area and continue the rally or whether they roll over and take out key support.

Interesting enough, today's session peaks , at the multi-session rally highs, were near key overhead resistance just underneath the 1885-90 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and right at the late February highs and just underneath the late January highs on the SPX.

So we'll see whether they can punch thru or whether they roll over here and do some retesting.

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.