The market had a semi-volatile day.  They started out with a sharp drop, but because of the oversold condition they attempted a rally and did get a sharp one, but it failed at resistance.  They came down and tested the lows, but the lows held as well, and in the afternoon they rallied back to the highs but couldn't take them out, backed off and consolidated.  Then in the last hour they gave it one more try, got right up to those highs again, made nominal new highs on the S&P, couldn't get any follow-through from the NDX and backed off into the close.

Net on the day it was an up-day, except for the SOX.  The Dow was up 44, the S&P 500 4.4, the NDX 5.5, and the SOX Index was down 1.  That held Nasdaq back from bigger gains, of course.

But technicals were not good.  Advance-declines were negative by 18 to 14 on New York and 15 to 14 on Nasdaq.  That often happens when stocks are down in the morning and then rally back -- all of the stocks don't quite get back into the plus column.  Up/down volume was narrowly mixed and almost even, slightly positive on New York and slightly negative on Nasdaq.  Total volume was heavy on New York with more than 1.8 billon, and nearly 1.65 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed.  Forward Industries (FORD) dropped another 1.84 and Abatix (ABIX) dropped 1.31.  Other than that nothing was up or down as much as a point on my board, and most stocks were very narrowly, fractionally changed.

Other stocks of note on the downside, Panacos Pharmaceuticals (PANC) dropped 70 cents, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) 47 cents, Escalon Medical (ESMC) 64 cents, and Distributed Energy Systems (DESC) 48 cents.

On the plus side, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) advanced 30 cents and Evergreen Solar (ESLR) 42 cents in the alternative energy sector.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the NDX found support this morning at the August lows near 1551 and was able to snap back to resistance.  But so far that's all it's done and we need to get a follow-through to confirm we've reached a short-term bottom.

The S&P 500 similarly dropped down not far from support, 3-4 points from it, and then rallied to resistance at the close as well.

So, we'll be watching carefully to see if we can get any breakouts tomorrow, but with it being a Friday before Hurricane Rita it's likely tomorrow may be a mixed and indecisive session.

Good trading!

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.