The indices had three distinct parts of the session: They were down in the morning, bounced around mid-day, tried to base out and successfully retested the lows, and then rallied in the afternoon back up near the session highs on the Nasdaq 100 at key resistance levels at around the 1415-16 area before backing off late in the session. The SPX similarly rallied back, did not even get up to the morning highs, and ended down on the day.

It was a mixed session at the close, with the Dow up 14.81 at 8178.41, about 90 points off its low. The S&P 500 was down 1.47 at 879.56, about 10 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 up 6.75 at 1411.53, 18 points off its low.

The technicals were still negative at the close by almost 2 to 1 on advance-declines on New York and a like amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 Ã,½ to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.4 billion and had a 3 to 2 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board mostly lower today. Amgen (AMGN) however, jumped 7.27 to 59.50 on positive drug news. Family Dollar Stores (FDO) was up 3.43 to 31.18 on 13.6 million on strong earnings.

Apple (AAPL) rose 1.82 to 137.22 in a late afternoon reversal. The Oil Service HLDRs (OIH) reversed nearly $4 from its lows and closed up 1.06 to 90.21 on 17.6 million.

Some of the ultrashorts, despite the late rally, still managed gains on the day. The UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) was up 50 cents to 22.03, more than a point off its high. The Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) closed about 1.40 off its high, up 47 cents on the day. The Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) was up 22 cents to 40.08 despite an earlier high of 41.47.

Other stocks of note, Dendreon (DNDN) lost 1.30 to 23.72, Goldman Sachs (GS) lost nearly 4 to 138.55, and Potash (POT) lost 1.48 to 90.60. The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) fell 1.24 to 32.57 on the drop in crude oil to near $60.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down in the morning to new pullback lows, but managed to stabilize by mid-session and retest in the afternoon. When that was successful, they rallied late in the session and closed mixed. We’ll see if that’s meaningful or not, as the move off the lows wasn’t exactly a sharp thrust and could be nothing more than a technical snapback.

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