We had a very volatile session today, and at the end of the day the indices were indeed down again. But, they were sharply lower by mid-day and staged a very impressive, sharp rally, although they did give back a big chunk of it in the last 45 minutes.

The day started out with a big gap down as futures were sharply lower before the opening. After an early lower move that held near yesterday's low, they rallied sharply but could not get through overhead resistance and then stair-stepped their way down all morning until around mid-session when they reached their lows for the day. The Nasdaq 100 dipped under 1785 and the S&P 500 near 1225. At that point they snapped back sharply, pulled back and retested and did so successfully, and then came on very strong with a couple intraday gaps, which is quite unusual, on positive news about the Fed potentially backing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That really helped the market, but towards the end of the day when the Fed refused to comment when asked about its plans the market gave it back very quickly.

But that rally went from 1785 to 1838, a gain of more than 53 points on the Nasdaq 100 inside of a couple hours, before giving back a large chunk of it. The S&P 500 went from 1225 to over 1255, more than 30 points in that time frame.

Net on the day , the indices closed at 11,100 on the Dow, down 128 1/2, and just under 1240 on the S&P 500, down 13.90. The Nasdaq 100 closed just over 1810, down 28.69, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was off 3.49 today, but that was 8 points off its low.

The technicals did not make it back into the plus column by any means, particularly on the NYSE where advance-declines were 21 1/2 to 10 Ã,½ negative. On Nasdaq, however, declining issues held a lead of only 112 issues at the end of the day. The up/down volume however, was 2 1/2 to 1 negative on New York, where volume increased to just under 1 3/4 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2.3 billion and also had a 2 1/2 to 1 negative ratio today.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was very mixed, with many stocks closed to the flat line. But there were several outstanding issues, mostly in the oils and the short ETFs, such as SDS, closing at 71.04, up 1.38. However, that was as high as 72.74 earlier in the day. The QID at 45.83 was up 1.07, about 1.50 off its high.

The USO on firm oil today closed at 117.21, up 2.87. Many oil stocks were up on the session, but gave back a big chunk of their gains, as well. Pyramid Oil (PDO), for example, closed up 55 cent, after being up nearly 4 points earlier in the day.

JA Solar (JASO) had a very strong relative strength day in an otherwise soft junior solar energy group. Canadian Solar (CSIQ), for example, dropped 37 cents, and Solarfun (SOLF) was up only a dime.

On the losing side, shippers were weak, with DryShips (DRYS) down 2.05, Excel Maritime (EXM) 1.27, and TBS International (TBSI) down 56 cents.

On the plus side, A-Power Energy (APWR), one of our recent Charts of the Week, was up 93 cents, continuing its recent advance. Portfolio position Advanced Battery (ABAT) was up 22 cents, Eschelon Corp. (ELON) up 72 cents, and 3Par (PAR) up 79 cents today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a real volatile session, hitting new multi-week pullback lows but reaching the bottom of the down-channels before bouncing late in the session. Unfortunately, they were not able to hold the gains and closed with losses on the day, so net-net it was another down-session for the indices.

Today's rally highs are going to be key overhead resistance up in the 1840-45 level on the Nasdaq 100 and near 1255-58 zone on the S&P 500. Those are the levels we'll be keeping an eye on.

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.