The markets were mixed at the close on Thursday. After a brief rally in the morning, they went to lower lows on the Nasdaq 100, in fact the lows for the entire 5 day pullback. The S&P 500 refused to fold and did not take out its lows, and then they turned it around late morning, extended the move into early afternoon, and with about an hour to go the indices were at their highs for the day. The S&P 500 actually broke out across price resistance but encountered declining moving average resistance on its hourly chart. In the last hour they backed and filled ,then pulled back in the last 10 minutes or so to take them off the afternoon highs, and close mixed on the session.

Net on the day the Dow was up just 12.78 and the S&P 500 3.18, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 6.28, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was off 1.22.

So, a mixed result at the close.

The technicals reflected that, as there were about 400 more decliners than advancers on New York and nearly 700 more decliners on on Nasdaq. Up/down volume, however, had a slight edge to the plus side on New York on total volume of under 900 million shares, the lightest volume I believe all year. Nasdaq traded about 1.6 billion and had a negative ratio of about 2 to 1 of declining over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed, with very few point-plus gainers or losers. On the plus side, the US Oil Trust (USO) was up to 98.15, up 4.15 today, on the huge spike in oil.

The point-plus losers on our board were the DUG, the short oil & gas ETF, which lost 1.43 to 33.44, and portfolio position A-Power Energy (APWR), which gave back 1.13.

Among the fractional gainers, Aerovironment (AVAV) reached a new all-time high, tagging as high as 34.61, closing at 33.89, up 94 cents, Focus Media (FMCN) at 30.58 was up 78 cents. Fannie Mae (FME) had a very strong snapback after plunging to new 19 year lows this morning, reaching 3.53 in the morning and trading as high as 5.01 late in the session, to close at 4.85, up 45 cents on more than 185 million.

That may be a major selling climax and reversal.

Airlines were affected by the rise in oil today, with UAUA down 1.06 to 11.33, on 75 million shares.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the indices were down in the morning, up in the afternoon, but backed off to close mixed on the session, below resistance on the Nasdaq 100 and above short-term resistance on the S&P 500. We'll have to see if more important overhead resistance at the 1920-25 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1280-85 zone on the S&P 500 can be overcome.

The S&P 500 did its part today but the Nasdaq 100 refused to cooperate, and they closed mixed on the day.

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.