The indices had a wild and wooly day. They gapped up, ran hard in the morning on positive premarket futures, were then spurred higher by positive housing news and then went into mid-day consolidation in preparation for the FOMC announcement. That announcement caused the indices to then drop, snapback, test resistance and then make lower lows before retesting at the end of the day and firming up into the close.

Net on the day the indices ended mixed, but most of them were higher. The Dow was down 23.05 at 8299.86, just a hair under 8300. The S&P 500 was up 5.84 to a little over 900, and the Nasdaq 100 up 22.16 to a tad over 1447. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 4.42 to a fraction over 258.

Advance-declines were about 2 Ã,½ to 1 positive on New York, but less than 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 1 positive on New York on lighter total volume of just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.15 billion and had an 8 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher today, with several point-plus gainers. Cornerstone Therapeutics (CRTX), a recently added portfolio position, jumped 1.13 to 11.19. Dendreon (DNDN) came back 1.12 to 24.67. OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) jumped 2.63 to 22.05, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) gained 1.08 to 24.29.

Goldman Sachs (GS) advanced 1.46 to 142.65, Apple (AAPL) 2.21 to 136.22, Potash (POT) 1.34 to 93.42, and the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) up 1.07 to 33.68.

Among fractional gainers, Savient Pharmaceuticals (SVNT) gained 66 cents to 13. Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) jumped 73 cents to 11.60, SIGA Technologies (SIGA) came back 25 cents to 7.28, and 3Par (PAR) added 23 cents to 11.12.

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) jumped 70 cents in a firm solar sector, along with Yingli Green Energy (YGE), up 63 cents to 13.57. AHD advanced 60 cents to 3.50.

On the downside, fractional losers included the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) down 84 cents to 21.00 and the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) down 71 cents to 24.86. PMTI had a difficult session, losing 72 cents to 14.33.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up strong in the morning, moved sideways and consolidated mid-day, and then dropped sharply and gave back most of the gains, including all of them and then some on the Dow, to close mixed on the day. After FOMC decisions like today, the indices often will move rapidly in another direction within a day or two. We’ll see what occurs over the next couple days.

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