The indices had a strong opening and vaulted to new 2009 highs today early on, but reversed mid-morning, came down, bounced around, tried to rally back, failed at resistance and rolled over. They did get a late bounce again in the last hour, but that was taken back just before the close. Only a last 10-minute bounce brought them off the lows.

Net on the day, it was a mixed session, with the Dow up slightly by just 3.32 to 9509.28, about 80 points off the high. The S&P 500 was down 0.56 to 1025.57, 10 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 was down 3 even at 1634.78, 14 points off its high.

Advance-declines were slightly positive by just 70 issues on New York and negative by 220 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 6 to 5 positive on New York on total volume of about 1 1/4 billion. Nasdaq traded just over 2 billion shares and had an 11 to 9 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed, with a few outstanding winners. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) led the way today on positive flu vaccine news by the government, up 2.55 to 12.60 on 8.8 million shares. NovaVax (NVAX) in the same group jumped 45 cents to 5.21, and Sinovac (SVA), was up 54 cents to 5.47 on 4.2 million shares.

Financials led the way to the downside today, coming well off their highs, with Wells Fargo (WFC) down 62 cents at 27.32, JP Morgan (JPM) down 65 cents to 43.01, and Morgan Stanley (MS) down 4 cents to 29.65. Goldman Sachs (GS) lost 93 cents to 162.58. Among the point-plus gainers, American International Group (AIG) rallied 1 at 33.85, although traded as high as 35.45, a new rally high earlier in the session.

Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) vaulted over 17, closing at 17.18, up 73 cents, a new multi-year high, on rumors of a takeover. AgFeed Industries (FEED) jumped 52 cents to 5.42. Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) rallied $2 off its low, closing up 58 cents on the day at 24.38.

But most other stocks on our board, including ETFs, were very narrowly mixed today.

So, it’s going to be interesting to see if the market get can a downside follow-through or whether today’s action was just a pause that refreshes as they move to higher levels. We’ll likely soon see how it goes. But, it could be a critical time for the indices in terms of directional moves just ahead.

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