The market ended with a solid gain for the session, but it disappointed with a last half-hour sell-off that took back a chunk of the gains.

The day started out with a gap up. They backed and filled early in the session, but then took off in the morning, reaching the morning highs just before the lunch hour. During the lunch hour and shortly thereafter they consolidated in a flag-like fashion, holding intraday support, and came on again in the afternoon, especially on the S&P 500 and Dow, as the blue chips caught up with the NDX from yesterday.

With a half hour to go, the S&P 500 reached its declining 40-day moving average on the hourly charts, which proved to be formidable resistance, as the indices again sold off, giving back about 100 Dow points in the last half hour,14 on the NDX & 12 on the SPX

Net on the day the Dow was up nearly 150, the S&P 500 up 16 1/2, and the Nasdaq 100 up a little less than 30. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) gained 8.78 for a 4 1/2 percent gain.

Advance-declines were positive by 4 to 1 on New York and about 2 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 12 to 5 positive on New York on total volume of just under 1.8 billion. Nasdaq traded just over 2.3 billion and had a 5 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board had an excellent session. Other than the ultrashorts and some of the financials, most stocks on our board were up.

Point-plus gainers included Amazon (AMZN), which broke out of a beautiful bull flag and ran up 3.11 on nearly 11 million shares to close at 64.81. Apple (AAPL) was up 2.80 to 91.17, and Mosaic (MOS) was up 1.73 to 41.88.

Morgan Stanley (MS) jumped 1.22 to 19.40 in a mixed financial sector. JP Morgan (JPM) was down 1.71 to 19.30, and Wells Fargo (WFC) dropped 1.01 to 9.66.

There was negative news in the agriculture sector, and as a result Potash (POT) was down 2.07 to 74.63. But Agrium (AGU) managed to gain 1.67. So, a mixed picture in that sector, but there was a steep afternoon sell-off, before the snapback.

Other significant gains included DryShips (DRYS) up 1.11 to 3.90, a big percentage gain, on 31 million shares, and Excel Maritime (EXM) up 1.06 to 4.35. GNK closed up 2 to 11.04, as the Baltic Dry Index had a strong day, giving hope for firming prices in the shipping sector.

Among the ETFs, The Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) was up 1.75, the iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) up 2.27, and iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) up 2.16, along with the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) up 2.22.

However, the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) was down 7.96 to 98.52 and the SRS lost 3.20 to 87.42.

Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) jumped 1.19 to 20 even, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) gained 1.65 to 13.31 in a firm China sector.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices extended the snapback off yesterday's lows, but got up to key overhead resistance and backed off late in the session. We'll see if that's significant, and whether or not the indices can right themselves and extend the bounce off the lows to take out the declining 4-week channel and moving averages resistance.

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.