The indices ended mixed on the session, but the market held its own today and actually had a minor breakout this morning. Pre-market futures were higher, and the indices gapped up and then ran to the session highs within the first hour and a half, then spent several hours in a 3-wave decline, actually broke minor support. Secondary support held, and they snapped back in the last hour or so, only to roll back in the last 20 minutes to give back a chunk of the gains and ended negative on the Dow.

Net on the day the Dow was down 15.87 at 8539.73, the S&P 500 up 2.86 at 921.21, and the Nasdaq 100 up 17.43 at 1471.23. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 3.20 at 264.47.

The technicals were positive by 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York and a similar amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little less than 2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of 2.1 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 3 billion and had about a 3 to 2 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. Leading the way was Apple (AAPL), up 3.60 to 139.48, and Cree Inc. (CREE) up 1.60 at 30.41.

Day trade pick China Medical Technologies (CMED) jumped 2.03 to 24.93, but traded as high as 26.07 earlier in the day.

The only point-plus loser on our board was Potash (POT), continuing its recent decline, down 2.30 to 92.72.

Large fractional gainers included DG FastChannel (DGIT) +96 cents, JP Morgan (JPM) +83 cents, Palm (PALM) +87 cents to 13.93, and Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) +59 cents to 11.72.

Yingli Green Energy (YGE) was up 81 cents to 15.83. Portfolio position 3Par (PAR) was up 51 cents to 11.70, tagging a new 18-month this afternoon at 11.98.

On the downside there were just small fractional losses. Among the ETFs we follow, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) was up 40 cents, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) down 23 cents, the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) down 57 cents, and the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) 55 cents. The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) lost 88 cents on the pullback in oil, but the iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) was up 56 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up in the morning, down mid-day, snapped back in the afternoon, but closed mixed on the session. The indices did well to not fall further and actually gain on the day. But, we’ll see how they shake out next week.

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