The indices ended to the plus side, but it was very choppy. The day started out with a down move and then an immediate reversal. When the Nasdaq 100 made new lows and the S&P 500 didn’t, that caused a positive divergence. They then snapped back very sharply on positive economic news, with the NDX jumping from1657 to 1689, or 32 points in about 35-40 minutes. The SPX rallied from 1037 to 1052.

Then they backed and filled, and when they couldn’t rally out of those patterns, they rolled over hard to new lows for the session and for the entire decline, bounced, retested successfully, and then worked their way higher in a 3-wave rally, but it seemed more technical than anything else.

Net on the day the Dow was up 76.71 at 9789.44, the S&P 500 up 6.69 at 1042.88, and the Nasdaq 100 up 5.78 at 1672.91.

Advance-declines were positive by just 8 to 7 on New York and were negative by 7 to 6 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York on total volume of 1.5 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 2 1/3 billion but was nearly dead-even flat on up/down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrow but mixed. Leading the way on the upside was Human Genome Sciences (HGSI), which jumped 6.59 on positive drug news on 40.7 million, closing at 25.28.

The Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) added 1.26 to 68.85, and the Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) 97 cents at 48.06.

RINO International (RINO) snapped back 1.02 at 20.54.

Those were the only point-plus gainers on our board.

Other stocks of note on the plus side, NutriSystem (NTRI) jumped 56 cents to 22.08, continuing its recent rally. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) advanced 51 cents on flu news, closing at 9.44, and Sinovac (SVA) up 23 cents to 7.64.

American International Group (AIG) rose 69 cents to 34.31, but traded more than 2 points higher earlier. The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) added 65 cents to 39.97. Akamai (AKAM) was up 45 cents to 22.45.

On the downside, Firesource (FIRE) was down 1.08 to 19.22, American Superconductor (AMSC) 1.02 to 32.50, Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) 47 cents at 22.47, and the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 35 cents to 21.93.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were down early, had a sharp rally, then a consolidation, a hard rollover, and then a 3-wave move back putting them in the positive column in the last couple hours.

A positive start to Monday after very oversold readings, but not extremely impressive and we’ll soon see if there’s any upside follow-though or if they continue the downtrend.

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