The markets had a very mixed session that included a mid-day rally that was rather tedious and unimpressive from my viewpoint, with breadth poor and volume low.

The day started out with a move lower, followed by a bounce and then lower lows, which tested support successfully on the Nasdaq 100, although the S&P 500 did crack initial support. However, the 3-day rising trendlines did hold, and from that point they managed to rally in a 5-wave advance, taking the NDX to new 3-day rally highs, but falling just short of the 3 1/2-month highs set on April 24, before backing off in the last hour.

The S&P 500, meanwhile, fell far short of even yesterday's highs and then rolled over with the Nasdaq 100 at the end of the day.

Net on the day it was a mixed picture, with the Dow down nearly 40, the S&P 500 down around 5 1/2, the Nasdaq 100 up 10.34, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 0.74.

Technicals were mostly negative by 18 to 13 on advance-declines on New York and by nearly 500 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was negative by 7 to 5 on New York on a light 1.2 billion. Nasdaq traded 1.7 billion with a 4 to 3 positive volume ratio.

Certainly it was not an impressive performance for breadth on a day when the Nasdaq 100 was up10.34.

TheTechTrader.com board was extremely mixed, with a few gainers and losers of more than a point. On the plus side, VMware (VMW) continued its recent advance, up another 1.11 to 68.44. FuelTek (FTEK) had a strong afternoon surge, closing at 26.30, up 1.07 to new multi-month highs. DCR, the ultrashort oil ETF, closed at 4.25, the high for the day, up 69 cents on 3.65 million shares.

On the downside, DryShips (DRYS) got hammered for 4.42, Excel Maritime (EXM) 2.82 and TBS International (TBSI) 2.70 in a very weak shipping sector.

Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) lost 1.09, and AgFeed Industries (FEED) gave back 1.96 today.

Among the fractional gainers, Immersion Corp. (IMMR) was up 28 cents, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) up 62 cents, and CLWR up 24 cents.

Among the fractional losers, solar energy for the most part also had a weak session today, with Canadian Solar (CSIQ) down 43 cents, JA Solar (JASO) down 43 cents, and Solarfun (SOLF) down 67 cents. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) gave back 96 cents and Ascent Solar (ASTI) 61 cents.

In addition, PGNX lost 61 cents along with China Finance Online (JRJC) down 89 cents and JST down 98 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices bounced off the rising moving averages and uptrend lines on the hourly charts and lateral price support, and then attempted to retest the highs but fell just short on the Nasdaq 100 and far short on the S&P 500.

Despite the back-off and the mixed close, they did manage to continue above key support, so the uptrend is still intact. However, tomorrow the FOMC announces and there will be several economic news releases, so it could be a very volatile day. Fasten your seat belts.

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.