The day did start out with a gap up. They tried to rally but rolled over and took the S&P 500 to new session lows, but failed to take out last week's low, despite the fact that the Nasdaq 100 did. Then they stair-stepped their way up in a five-way rally that took the indices to new session highs late in the afternoon. In the last hour or so they rolled over after formidable overhead resistance failed to get penetrated.

Net on the day the Dow was up a little more than 38, the S&P 500 7 1/2, and the Nasdaq 100 16 1/2. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up a little more than 2 1/2.

So a positive day in general, but a less than desirable close.

Advance-declines were positive by 17 to 14 on New York and by 16 to 12 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 8 to 7 positive on New York on total volume of 1 1/2 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.3 billion and had a ratio of about 14 to 9 positive on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, but there were some very strong rebounds today in stocks that got hammered recently. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), which lost a big chunk yesterday, gained back 4.57 to 57.62 on 3.5 million. DryShips (DRYS) gained 2.58 and Excel Maritime (EXM) 1.81. Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS) gained 3.44, and VISN snapped back 1.12. Canadian Solar (CSIQ), which reached all the way down to near 20 this morning, closed at 23.01, up 1.67, a nice reversal there.

Portfolio position Converted Organics (COIN) jumped 90 cents to 7.30 and reached just a penny off our original trading target of 7.50, reaching as high as 7.49 today. Brigham Exploration (BEXP) in the junior oil sector was up 90 cents as well. Sigma Designs (SIGM) snapped back 62 cents, Solarfun (SOLF) 67 cents, and portfolio position Greatbatch (GB) was up 23 cents.

Among our recent Charts of the Week, TACT was up 65 cents, TWP up 61 cents, and XSI up 54 cents to 7.91.

On the downside, the DUG on the rebound in oil dropped 3.36 on 31 million shares, and Sequenom (SQNM) continued its recent pullback, closing at 19.32, down 1.32.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices did rally back in a 5-wave fashion but it looked corrective, and all that it managed to do was test the declining moving averages on the hourly charts and lateral price resistance and back off from there. Until we get a thrust back up through those levels, the trend is still down and we may see lower levels. I remain unconvinced that today's rally was meaningful.

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.