The stock market indices were choppy all day. They opened strong, retested the highs, couldn’t get through, tried again, but still couldn’t get through 1130 on the S&P 500, which now has formed a 2-day triple-top there, and pulled back in the morning. They tested support but held, and then bounced but without much thrust. In the last half hour they rolled over pretty hard into the negative column, but just slightly.

Net on the day the Dow was down 1.67 at 10,545.41, the S&P 500 down 1.59 at 1126.19, and the Nasdaq 100 down 6.16 at 1872.02.

Advance-declines were negative by less than 70 issues on New York and by 19 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 3 to 2 negative on New York on very light total volume of about 600 million. Nasdaq traded about 1.1 billion and had about 6 to 5 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower with a few gainers. The star of the day was low-priced China BAK Battery (CBAK), up 1.41 to 3.64, or 63 percent today.

Green Plains Renewable (GPRE) up 53 cents to 15.50, tagging 16 at one point, a new 52-week high. SmartHeat (HEAT) snapped back 24 cents to 14.60, and Nanometrics (NANO) moved up 19 cents to 11.92, but got as high as 12.45 earlier. Portfolio position Sourcefire (FIRE) gained 23 cents to 27.34.

Other than that, most stocks on our board were lower. Athersys (ATHX) got hammered for 1.04 to 4.24, and China Automotive (CAAS) lost 1.01 to 19.38. Those were the only two point-plus losers on our board today.

The key fractional losers on our board were all in the Chinese sector. A-Power Energy (APWR) lost 77 cents to 18.28, China Agritech (CAGC) 25 cents to 28.11, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) 61 cents to 28.63, Origin Agritech (SEED) 29 cents to 9.68, and Telestone Technologies (TSTC) 53 cents to 20.74.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices vacillated back and forth, dropping back from early strength in the morning, bouncing in early afternoon, but failing to maintain and rolling over in the last hour.

Net on the day there were very small losses for the SPX and Dow, and the NDX lost 6 points. They’re still holding key support, but the SPX closed right on its 6-day trendline and right near the session lows. Not a good day for the indices, but we’ll soon see if that carries over or not.

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