The indices managed to right themselves and end up positive on the session, but it was a seesaw day and we had a couple tests of support that held in the afternoon.

The day started out with a gap up, which immediately backed. The S&P 500 went to new pullback lows, the NDX did not at that point, and then they rallied strongly, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 getting up to yesterday morning's highs. They failed to break through, and then rolled over hard late morning, kind of meandered and consolidated mid-day in what looked like bear flags. Those bear flags did break to the downside, and the indices then retested yesterday's lows, bounced, and then retested them again, before finally deciding to stage a late sharp rally. In the last 25 minutes the S&P 500 jumped from 1266 to 1275, and the Nasdaq jumped from 1901 to 1914.

The late rally added on to the gains for the day, but still left indecisive patterns. Net on the day the Dow was up nearly 69, the S&P 500 up a little less than 8, and the Nasdaq 100 up 4.34. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up just 1.10 today.

Advance-declines barely edged to the plus side, by 8 to 7 on New York, and were negative by 29 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 positive on New York on total volume of a little more than 1 billion. Nasdaq traded a little more than 1.7 billion and had a ratio of 9 to 8 positive on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board had an outstanding day today, with many point-plus gainers, including several of our recent picks and portfolio positions. Yesterday's Chart of the Day and portfolio position Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) exploded, ran hard all day, and jumped 7.24 to close at 77.64 on 3 3/4 million shares. Portfolio position Canadian Solar (CSIQ) jumped 4.20 to 31.80 on 6.3 million. JA Solar (JASO) was up 1.56 to just under 18, and Solarfun (SOLF) had an exceptional day, up 2.90 to 19.32, on nearly 10 million shares. A very strong day for the junior solars.

Among other portfolio positions, VISN gained 1.09 to 19.91, A-Power Energy (APWR) gained 1.44 to 22.65, and Sequenom (SQNM) jumped 77 cents to 21.27. AVAV, a recent Chart of the Week, gained 1.03 to 32.95. The USO jumped 1.10 on a rebound in oil.

On the downside, point-plus losers included FSYS, yesterday's big gainer, which gave back 4.04 today, and the DUG on the surge in oil dropped 2.04. The onlt other point plus loser was UAUA, which jumped in the morning to 13.36, but gave it back and closed down 1.17 at 12.40 on 49 million shares today. There was a lot of volatility in airlines today due to the swings in oil.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices did well to test yesterday's lows and hold on a couple occasions, and then closed firm. But they have to get a follow through. The levels we'll be watching tomorrow are the 1280-82 zone as resistance on the SPX, and the 1832-34 zone on the NDX. On the downside, support at 1900 NDX and 1262 S&P 500 will be watched carefully.

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.