Despite it being a marginally positive day, the market actually continued its consolidation of the last three days.

The day started out with a gap up.  They rallied to the session highs early on and then had a morning slide that took them quickly back down to retest yesterday afternoon's lows successfully, and a mid-afternoon rally snapped them back but did not reach the earlier highs and then they pulled back into the last hour.

Net on the day the Dow was up less than 17, the S&P 500 up 1 1/4, the Nasdaq 100 nearly unchanged at -0.03, and the SOX Index was up 2.13.  So, the afternoon sell-off did damage to earlier-afternoon gains.

The technicals were very mixed, with NYSE advance-declines negative by about 100 issues.  Nasdaq was negative, however, by more than 500 issues, and was about 3 to 2 negative on the day.  Up/down volume was marginally positive on Nasdaq with 1 2/3 billion traded.  New York was about 8 to 5 positive, with about 1.56 billion traded.

TheTechTrader.com board was very narrowly mixed. Only a couple stocks were up or down as much as half a point.  Kendle International (KNDL) continued its super-strong trend.  This previous Chart of the Week is now over 27, closing at 27.20, up 1.20.

On the downside, DayStar Technologies (DSTI) dropped 1.11 today and broke key two-month support.

Other stocks of note, Sierra Wireless (SWIR) was up 82 cents, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) 42 cents, Sirna Therapeutics (RNAI) up 41 cents, and Neoware (NWRE), also a previous Chart of the Week, up 58 cents.  Cutera (CUTR) advanced 34 cents, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 30 cents.

On the downside, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) dropped 42 cents, Forward Industries (FORD) 47 cents, and Rediff.com India (REDF) 34 cents.

So, as you can see most stocks were narrowly mixed today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the downtrend of the last couple weeks continued.  Despite the consolidation of the last three days, it does come off of a prior down move.  We'll see if we can extend this decline for a fifth-wave down, or whether they stabilize, base out and move higher.

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.