The markets had a consolidation day on Friday, although many stocks were firm, and the technicals, particularly on advance-declines, were very good.

The day started out with a lot of back and forth action, with the NDX holding up better than the SPX, which actually took out initial levels of support, but there was no downside follow-through. They had a mid-morning rally that got back up to resistance at the early morning highs, and then they backed and filled again and coiled for about an hour before coming on again late in the session.

With about 10-15 minutes to go they were trading at the highs for the day and the week. But a late sell-off trimmed back some of those gains.

Net on the day the Dow was down 34.01 at 8438.39, the S&P 500 down just 1.37 to 918.89, and the Nasdaq 100 up 4.38 at 1480.20.

Advance-declines were positive by 3 to 2 on New York and almost 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 11 to 10 positive on New York on total volume of over 2.1 billion. Nasdaq traded 2 1/2 billion and had a 19 to 16 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly positive. Apple (AAPL) was up 2.58 at 142.44, and Goldman Sachs (GS) up 2.31 to 146.74. Palm Inc. (PALM) jumped 2.20 to 16.22 after their earnings report, and OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) snapped back sharply, up 2.50 to 23.73.

Many of our Model Portfolio positions had an excellent session: 3Par (PAR) added 68 cents to 12.28, Rambus (RMBS) up 62 cents to 15.79, SIGA Technologies (SIGA) up 92 cents at 8.26 after announcing they’re being included in the Russell 3000, TIVO up 42 cents to 11.03, and CRTX up 75 cents to 11.40.

On the downside, there were just fractional losers on our board, nothing much to speak of although Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ) had a difficult session, losing 60 cents to 3.88. Dendreon (DNDN) lost 97 cents to 23.99 after reaching as high as 25.58 earlier, on a late sell-off. The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) on weaker oil was down 54 cents to 37.51, and the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) dropped 34 cents to 20.11.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices pretty much rested today, consolidating after yesterday’s big gains, but ended the week very positively.

Although, looking at the hourly charts, the NDX is right up against key resistance near 1480. The SPX, likewise, is near the 920-25 zone, reaching as high as 922 today, closing at 918 and change.

So we’ll see if they can follow-through or roll over next week.

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