Despite the fact that the stock market indices closed up on the session, it was a negative looking kind of bear consolidation day. The indices did manage to stem the downward tide and rallied from the get-go with gap-ups at the opening and then slightly higher highs. But they were unable to get through initial resistance at 1814 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1102 on the S&P 500, and then rolled over and retested. When they made higher lows, they ended up coming back, but in a much slower move that lacked thrust. With about 40 minutes to go, the indices were near the afternoon highs and SPX at its session high, but when they were unable to extend they rolled over into the close and gave back a big chunk of their gains.

Net on the day the Dow was up 23.88 at 10196.86, the S&P 500 up 5.02 at 1096.78, and the Nasdaq 100 up 7.57 at 1802.39.

Advance-declines were positive by about 5 to 3 on New York, but negative by 48 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 positive on New York on total volume of just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.2 billion and had a little less than 2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

The vast majority of stocks on TheTechTrader.com board were either down or fractionally mixed, as a result there was only one stock on our board up as much as a point. That was Medifast (MED), which came out with earnings above expectations and upgrades, and jumped 2.36 to 21.24.

Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) advanced 73 cents at 50.12, and Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) 86 cents to 71.50.

Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals (HITK) was up 66 cents to 24.02. Portfolio position Xyratex (XRTX) up 51 cents to 15.41, Incyte Pharmaceuticals (INCY) up 32 cents to 9.79, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) up 69 cents to 22.35, and Brigham Exploration (BEXP) 50 cents to 13.75.

The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) was up 47 cents to 36.81 on firmer oil.

On the downside, many Chinese stocks were still weak, with RINO International (RINO) off 2.50 to 21.10, China Agritech (CAGC) 1.72 to 29.28, and Telestone Technologies (TSTC) another 1.25 to 15.62.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up in the morning, down mid-day, back up in early afternoon and rolled over into the close, breaking out of bear wedge patterns near the end of the day. That augurs bearishly for tomorrow.

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