The markets had a choppy session and ended lower for the most part. But they did have an afternoon comeback.

The day started out with a strong move to the downside. They took out initial support, tested secondary support successfully and then bounced, pulled back and then were very quiet for a while. They began to roll over around the time of the FOMC announcement, but then took off and rallied sharply to new highs for the day on the SPX, below that on the NDX. When that occurred they rolled back over.

Net on the day the indices ended down but just marginally, with the Dow off just 17.24 at 10433.71, the S&P 500 down 0.59 at 1105.65, and the Nasdaq 100 down 6.69 at 1786.25.

Advance-declines were about 8 to 7 negative on New York and about 3 to 2 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 4 negative on New York on very low total volume of 930 million. Nasdaq traded over 1.7 billion and had a 10 to 7 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed, with most stocks down today. No stocks on our board were up as much as a point, although there were some gainers of note.

Dataram (DRAM) was outstanding today, up 91 cents to 5.39. Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ) gained 69 cents to 7.77, SIGA Technologies (SIGA) 81 cents to 8.40, and Protalix (PLX) 95 cents to 10.72.

On the downside, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) lost 1.47 to 76.37. That was the only point-plus loser, other than SmartHeat (HEAT), which dropped 1.42 to 12.33.

Other losses of note, Ocean Power (OPTT) fell 66 cents to 8.79, JP Morgan (JPM) 80 cents at 42.48, and Goldman Sachs (GS) 87 cents at 171.13. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) gave back 92 cents to 21.07, and ARCA biopharma (ABIO) 74 cents to 3.58.

The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) also lost 80 cents to 38.58 on weaker oil.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were down early, snapped back, pulled back to retest, and then got very quiet before the FOMC meeting which led to the afternoon rally and then the late pullback, closing narrowly lower on the day.

Still, with the early lows holding price and moving average support, today could be considered a good stand by the bulls.

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