The indices finished with gains today but gave back a good chunk of it in the last few hours. They started out with a gap up that broke out across key 2-day resistance. They then backed off and rested successfully and then came on strongly. By mid-day they reached their session highs at 1731 on the Nasdaq 100 and near 1070 on the S&P 500, then backed off into mid-afternoon, tried to rally but couldn’t break out again, and finally backed off to close at the afternoon pullback lows.

Net on the day the Dow was up 61.29 at 9786.87, the S&P 500 up 7.90 at 1065.48, and the Nasdaq 100 up 7.34 at 1717.79. However, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 1.58 today, which may be a sign of a negative divergence from that sector that could pressure the NDX.

Advance-declines were positive by 22 to 8 on New York and by just 15 to 11 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of a light 1 1/4 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.3 billion and had a better than 2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, however, had more losers than gainers today. Leading the way to the downside was Goldman Sachs (GS), down 2.31 at 188.17. Also in that sector, Wells Fargo (WFC) lost a small fraction to 29.05, JP Morgan (JPM) gave back 40 cents to 45.30, and American International Group (AIG) dropped 2.15 to 43.75.

Other losses of note, A123 Systems (AONE) was down 1.33 to 21.99, a recent new issue giving back some of its gains. RINO International (RINO) fell 1.02 to 22.95.

On the plus side, the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) gained 72 cents to 36.68 on firmer oil, and the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) 81 cents to 84.23.

China TransInfo (CTFO) jumped 70 cents to 11.46, Brigham Exploration (BEXP) 79 cents to 9.66, and Alpha Pro Tech (APT) 43 cents to 6.63 on 1 1/2 million. DryShips (DRYS) added 34 cents to 7.07 on 35 million traded.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up in the morning, pulled back, and then reached their session highs by mid-day, only to give back a chunk of the gains in an afternoon slide, but still held onto gains on the session, other than the SOXX Index.

The highs on the indices today were right at the highs of two weeks ago, so a key resistance level now exists at 1730-32 NDX and near 1070 SPX. We’ll see if the indices are able to punch through tomorrow or not, or whether this is a key area that turns back the indices to lower levels.

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