The markets ended positively but it was a rough road. They started out with a real nice pop to the upside based on strong futures and some pre-market economic news that traders reacted to positively. The indices popped, pulled back quickly, but came on again and made nominal new highs on the S&P 500, reaching as high as almost 1423. But at that point the Nasdaq 100 fell a bit short and they rolled over and sold off for the rest of the morning. They then stabilized midday, and backed and filled for a couple hours holding support at NDX 1965 & SPX 1407 on multiple occasions, before coming on again in the last hour, and closing back in positive territory.

The Dow closed up 48 points at 13,058, the S&P 500 up 4.56 to just under 1414, and the Nasdaq 100 up 1.43 today and closed about 15 points off its high, but managed to get back into the plus column at just under 1982. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down a fraction, down 0.44, and closed back under 400.

Technicals were positive on New York by about 400 issues and negative by about the same amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 7 to 5 positive on New York on 1 1/4 billion traded. Nasdaq had an 11 1/2 to 11 ratio, just a slight edge to the plus side, on total volume of 2 1/4 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but there some real nice gainers today. In particular, the shippers led the way with DryShips (DRYS) up 6.65, closing jst short of just 90. Portfolio position Excel Maritime (EXM) popped 3.06 today, closing at 43.12, and TBS International (TBSI) gained 1.38.

Other stocks of note, AgFeed Industries (FEED) had a sharp upside reversal today. After getting smacked down to 15 1/4 in the morning, it turned it around and rallied for the rest of the day, closing near the session highs at 19, up 3.34 on more than 2 million shares.

Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) gained 3.58, closing over 25 at 25.08. Jinpan (JST), former Chart of the Week, was up 1.10, and China Natural Resources (CHNR) jumped 1.49 today. China Finance Online (JRJC), another of our portfolio positions, which had been down as much as 2 in the morning, closed up 58 cents at 22.66.

Recent Chart of the Week Vision Sciences (VSCI) popped over 5, closing at 5.23, up 46 cents to a new 4-year high. Nextwave Wireless (WAVE) closed at 6.60, up 20 cents today on the best volume of the week, 800,000 shares. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) advanced 51 cents, but other than that everything was kind of fractionally changed.

On the downside, VMware (VMW) lost 1.48 and FuelTek (FTEK) 1.53. Those were the only point-plus losers on our board.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices popped to new rally and multi-month highs early in the morning, sold off and retested support successfully. They came on at the end of the day and managed to close positively on the session.

They certainly had an excellent week. The trend is still higher, support has held , and until that trend is broken, they can still move higher. But oscillators are getting overbought, and other technicals indicate we may be coming to a short-term top, not to mention cycle tops in this timeframe.

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.