The markets had a choppy session, with a 5-wave decline in the morning that tested the intraday moving averages on the hourly charts but did so successfully, resulting in a strong snapback in the afternoon. A late pullback also successfully retested intraday support, and then they came on again in the last 20-30 minutes to close mixed on the session.

Net on the day the Dow closed at 9096.72, down 11.79, nearly 90 points off its low. The S&P 500 fell 2.56 at 979.62, about 10 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 advanced 6.16 at 1605.47, after making a new rally high at 1609.17. It closed 22 points off its low.

Advance-declines were negative on New York by 111 issues and positive on Nasdaq by about 150 issues. Up/down volume was nearly dead-even flat on New York on total volume of about 1 1/4 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2.1 billion and had a 13 to 8 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board as a result was extremely narrowly mixed. There were some point-plus gainers and losers.

Financials were mixed, as Goldman Sachs (GS) dropped 2.33 at 160.54.

Ag/chems were soft, with Potash (POT) down 1.78 to 93.36, and Mosaic (MOS) down 1.87 to 50.85.

Those three were the point-plus losers on our board today

Junior biotechs again had a positive day, with Human Genome (HGSI) up 63 cents to 14.63 and Targacept (TRGT) up 73 cents to 10.97. Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ) closed up 28 cents at 6.58, but traded more than a point higher earlier in the day. Ariad (ARIA) was up 35 cents to 2.80. OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) up 60 cents to 29.14, continuing its rally now more than 9 points off its recent low.

Portfolio position China Green Agriculture (CGA) gained 39 cents at 10.04.

The ETF sector was extremely narrowly mixed today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, an early 5-wave decline held the moving averages on the hourly index charts, and they rallied sharply off of them by mid-afternoon, pulling back in the last hour, but snapping back up again late in the day to close narrowly mixed.

The bulls remain in control as the shorts have had their opportunities three times in the last three sessions in the morning, but the bulls brought them back in the afternoon. That remains the pattern right now. Until key support in the 1576-80 zone on the NDX and the 966-70 zone on the SPX are broken, the indices continue to squeeze higher.

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