The markets ended mixed after some intraday volatility. They were down in the morning, held near the 1440 area on the NDX and 904 on the S&P 500 and then bounced in a 5-wave move over the next several hours, reaching back up towards key overhead resistance at 1470 NDX and just under 920 SPX. When they failed to take that out, they rolled over and gave back about half the rally, which put the Dow and SPX back in the negative column at the close.

Net on the day the Dow closed at 8497.18, down 7.49. That was about 65 points off its high. The S&P 500 fell 1.26 to 910.71, about 8 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 still gained 12.64 today at 1455.89, but still closed 15 points off its high. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) managed to gain 2.45 today, a little less than 1 percent, at 266.16.

The technicals were still negative by a little better than 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York, but were positive on Nasdaq by 7 to 6. However, up/down volume was 9 to 4 negative on New York on total volume of 1.3 billion. Nasdaq traded 2 ½ billion and had a 13 to 11 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was largely negative today, with some multi-point losers particularly in the higher-priced stocks.

Leading the way down today was the ag/chem group once again with downward guidance from Europe’s largest potash producer. Potash (POT) lost 11.59 to 95.59, and Mosaic (MOS) fell 4.96 to 46.25.

In the financial sector, Goldman Sachs (GS) lost 4.43 to 139.53. Wells Fargo (WFC) dropped 1.31 to 23.09, JP Morgan (JPM) 77 cents to 32.73, Bank of America (BAC) 43 cents to 12.30, and Morgan Stanley (MS) 62 cents to 27.48. Hartford Financial Services (HIG) fell 74 cents to 11.20.

Junior solars continued weak, with Yingli Green Energy (YGE) down another 58 cents to 12.75 and Canadian Solar (CSIQ) off 78 cents to 13.27.

On the plus side, Savient Pharmaceuticals (SVNT) on FDA approval of their Gout drug advanced 3.34 or 36% to 12.61.

Portfolio position 3Par (PAR) was up 49 cents to 11.53. Alvarian (ALVR) with positive news on a major contract award was up 66 cents to 4.26. UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) gained 69 cents to 21.00, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) up 32 cents to 5.23, and the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) gained 19 cents to 38.70, as oil firmed.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early, rallied mid-day and then backed off in the last couple hours to give back about 50 percent of the rally and end mixed on the session.

The rally failed at key overhead resistance. We’ll likely soon see if that is it for the bounce and we head lower or not. Key levels to watch are 1470 resistance and 1440 support on the NDX, and SPX 920 resistance and 904 support.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.