The market struggled all morning and mid-day and late in the session came on and closed near the afternoon highs, pushing most of the major indices except for the Nasdaq back in the plus column.

The day started out with a very sharp move down on the Nasdaq 100, but the S&P 500 held up a little better. They then bounced back to resistance, rolled over and retested key 3-day support at 1142 SPX and 2-day support at around the 876-77 area on the NDX. That held, they came on again, and then managed to move the blue chips indices back into the plus column.

Net on the day, the Dow closed up 45.80 at 10,663.99 and the SPX up 2 at 1146.98, while the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.35 at 1886.4. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 1.06 at 366.62, pressuring the NDX.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 positive on New York and slightly positive on Nasdaq by 52 issues. Up/down volume was 5 to 3 positive on New York on a very light 950 million shares. Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion and had just a slight negative plurality.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly active and higher, with several point-plus gainers. The star of the day today was MAP Pharmaceuticals (MAPP) which had positive drug news and closed up 3.16 or 33% at 12.75. Portfolio position Origin Agritech (SEED) exploded in the last hour, running from 12 to 14 1/2, up 2.34 or 19%, closing just pennies off the high, as Fidelity announced they’re filing their 13-D.

Energy XXI (EXXI) on an oil discovery jumped 1.06, a 40% gain, at 3.69.

Chinese stocks were generally firm. China Automotive (CAAS) was up 1.87 to 26.35, continuing its recent run. China Agritech (CAGC) was up 1.57 to 38.43, and SmartHeat (HEAT) 88 cents to 18.03.

Portfolio position Taser (TASR) advanced 63 cents to 6.19, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals (HITK) up 41 cents to 28.99, portfolio position Sourcefire (FIRE) 70 cents to 27.05, and China Green Agriculture (CGA) 86 cents to 17.74.

On the downside, there were no point-plus losers. Fractional losers included ICX Technologies (ICXT) down 69 cents to 8.28 in a weak security group. Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals (CYCC) lost 48 cents to 2.48, Brigham Exploration (BEXP) down 62 cents to 13.94, and Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) 48 cents to 27.51.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were down sharply early, consolidated most of mid-day and then came on at the end in the day to close mixed on the session, with the blue chips higher and Nasdaq 100 lower today.

Still, the trend has not been broken as support continues to hold. But perhaps we saw some cracks in the armor today. We’ll see what occurs going forward as options expiration week unfolds.

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