The markets had a sloppy session to start the week and ended mixed. The day started out with a little bit of firmness. They reached resistance at 1110-11 on the S&P 500 and 798-800 on the Nasdaq 100, but were unable to punch through. Then they backed off and retested the lows on 2-3 occasions, narrowed and got very quiet mid-morning and then tried to rally around mid-day. When the indices failed to break through, they rolled over hard in early to mid afternoon and then over the last hour or so bounced back in what appeared to be bear-flag consolidations.

Net on the day the Dow was up a mere 1.21 at 10390.11, while the S&P 500 was down 2.73 at 1103.25, and the Nasdaq 100 down 8.26 at 1783.65. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 1.51 at 336.72, so a mixed picture.

Advance-declines were 16 to 13 positive on New York and flat on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 4 negative on New York on total volume of just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded over 1.8 billion and had a slightly negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed as a result of the sloppiness. Leading the way on the plus side was AsiaInfo (ASIA), which gapped up big and ran hard, up 5.61 to 30.71 on heavy volume of 8 1/2 million. Nvidia (NVDA) jumped 1.83 to 16.09 on positive news, and China Agritech (CAGC) jumped 2.64 to 29.30.

SmartHeat (HEAT) added 1.26 to 15.37, and RINO International (RINO) was up 1.23 to 28.86.

Among the fractional gainers, Sourefire (FIRE) edged higher by 49 cents to 23.31 and Canadian Solar (CSIQ) 79 cents to 23.79. China Green Agriculture (CGA) gained 55 cents to 17.33 and A-Power Energy (APWR) 78 cents to 16.44, with Sonic Solutions (SNIC) up 50 cents to 10.18 and Ocean Power (OPTT) 38 cents to 8.91.

Among the ETFs, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) jumped 75 cents to 20.24, and UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) 29 cents to 8.21.

On the downside, China Automotive (CAAS) lost 1.53 to 19.46. Goldman Sachs (GS) dropped 3.39 to 163.85, new three-month lows in a generally weak financial sector, That also included Wells Fargo (WFC), down 60 cents to 26.36, and JP Morgan (JPM), down 49 cents to 41.25.

The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) gave back 84 cents to 37.49 with oil weaker, and Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) got hammered by 2.96 to 72.20.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they backed and filled and held support for most of the session, tried to rally mid-day and when that was not successful they rolled over to new session lows before bouncing in the last hour.

Indeed, a sloppy way to start the week!

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