The stock market indices started off the week with another gain, but it was choppy.

The day started out moving lower, but the indices held support and turned it around sharply. The Nasdaq 100 (NDX) rallied from a session low from around 469 to the 493 1/2 area, and the S&P 500 (SPX) at that point rallied from 916 to about 927. A mid-day pullback brought them back to test. They bounced late afternoon, but couldn’t break out and then rolled over towards the end of the session, paring back the gains.

Still, net on the day the Dow was up 90.99 to 8529.38, the S&P 500 up 8.33 to 927.23, and the Nasdaq 100 up 3.63 to 1483.83.

Advance-declines were about 3 to 2 positive on New York, but about 15 to 12 negative on Nasdaq. Certainly an intraday technical divergence. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive on New York on light total volume of just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded over 2 billion and had about a 4 to 3 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with plenty of point-plus gainers and a few point-plus losers. On the plus side, large caps did well. Potash (POT) was up 2.50 to 95.59 and Mosaic (MOS) 2.59 to 45.95.

Goldman Sachs (GS) gained 2.62 to 149.36, and Dendreon (DNDN) snapped back 1.50 from Friday’s loss to 25.49.

U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) added 1.16 to 38.67 as oil gained more than $2 today.

On the downside, Longtop Financial (LFT) fell 1.24 to 24.71, and OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) gave back 1.06 to 22.67.

Those were the only two point-plus losers on our board.

Fractional gainers included Palomar Medical (PMTI), snapping back 54 cents to 14.81 and Infosonics (IFON) up 18 cents to 1.80. China Green Agriculture (CGA) edged up 19 cents to 8.50, and Cornerstone Therapeutics (CRTX) was up 14 cents to 11.54.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the indices were down in the morning, up mid-day, and then back down in the afternoon on Nasdaq, but were up in the morning and flat for the rest of the session in a 5-wave consolidation range on the SPX.

Good start to the week, but some negative divergences put a cautionary note on it.

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