The stock market indices ground it out today with two distinct performances from the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100. While the NDX was in a down-channel all day, the SPX was in a slight up-channel all day, and they diverged. With a net close near the zero line, it sure looks like distribution going on out there, so we need to be careful in the next few days. It’s going to be interesting to see whether the NDX pulls the SPX down or whether the NDX is able to hold support and the SPX pull it back up.

In any case, the day started out with a move higher on the NDX and lower on the SPX. But then they reversed course. After backing and filling in the first hour, the NDX rolled over from 1892 to 1878. The SPX dropped by only about 3 points, holding up much better. A lower low was made in the afternoon under 1875 by the NDX, but the SPX made a higher low. After the FOMC announcement, the indices rallied sharply, tagged new 2009 highs on the SPX, but the NDX was far from it. That resulted in a late rollover which retested the lows on the NDX but they held, and in the last 10 minutes bounced again to close just slightly in the plus column on the blue chips.

Net on the day the Dow was up 1.66 at 10573.68 and the S&P 500 up 0.62 at 1137.14, but the Nasdaq 100 fell 10.01 at 1870.42. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) 0.08 to 366.34.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 positive on New York and 7 to 6 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.2 billion and had a 6 to 5 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, as a result, with a few point-plus gainers but no point-plus losers.

Star of the Day today was TASER (TASR) which popped for $1.14 or 24% on news of several new orders . Chinese equipment manufacturer SmartHeat (HEAT) jumped 1.13 to 17.09. Brigham Exploration (BEXP) was up 1.06 to 15.49, tagging 15.70, a new 2009 high on news of very strong results from one of their new wells. Sharing that well is US Energy (USEG), which advanced 59 cents at 6.76 on 1 Ã,½ million.

OSI Systems (OSIS) snapped back 73 cents to 28.45. Incyte Pharmaceuticals (INCY) was up 73 cents to 11 today, and China Green Agriculture (CGA) up 79 cents to 17.11.

Geron (GERN) gained 35 cents to 6.41, and NetList (NLST) 44 cents to 5.53 on 7 million shares, the strongest volume in weeks. Telestone Technologies (TSTC) added 39 cents to 24.14.

Among the ETFs, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) rose 55 cents to 81.46, U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) 56 cents to 40.97.

On the downside, Origin Agritech (SEED) gave back 45 cents to 12.51, RINO International (RINO) 56 cents to 30.92. Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals (HITK) 45 cents to 28.49 as did Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) down 45 cents to 31.38.

China Automotive (CAAS) lost 76 cents to 23.04, making it the largest fractional loser on our board.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, it was a very choppy day today with a downward bent on the NDX and an upward bias on the SPX that left the indices narrowly mixed at the close.

We’ll probably soon see if that turns out to be nothing more than a consolidation day or if the indices are in distribution mode and about to roll over.

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