It was an interesting session today, as the blue chip indices were lower in the morning, and basically moved sideways the rest of day to end down on the session, while the Nadsaq 100 stair-stepped its way higher all day and closed not far from the session highs.

But the technicals were decidedly negative, so we have to consider today a negative day for the most part. Resistance was the key on the S&P 500, where after breaking down in the morning they were unable to get back over 1100 all day.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 26.30 to 10,270.55 and the S&P 500 down 6.04 at 1097.28, while the Nasdaq 100 was up 7.78 to 1784.70.

Advance-declines were about 3 to 2 negative on New York and a similar amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 1 negative on New York on light total volume of 1 billion. Nasdaq traded 2 1/4 billion and had an almost dead-even flat volume ratio, just slightly to the downside.

TheTechTrader.com board was basically mixed, but with plenty of gainers. Leading the way today was Lexmark (LXK) following up on yesterday’s big gain, up another 2.25 at 36.26 on 10.8 million shares.

In the Chinese sector, Telestone Technologies (TSTC) bounced back 1.12 to 15.48, as did China Agritech (CAGC) up 1.69 to 31.33.

Acorda Pharmaceuticals (ACOR) closed at 31, up 58 cents, and Sourcefire (FIRE) snapped back 55 cents to 22.49. MAP Pharmaceuticals (MAPP) gained 45 cents to 16.64.

Among the ETFs, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) was up 57 cents to 19.10, the UltraPro Short S&P 500 ProShares (SPXU) 53 cents to 37.37, and the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) up 27 cents to 17.59

On the downside, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) lost 2.34 to 72.12, and the Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) 76 cents to 49.94.

There were no point-plus losers other than that. Origin Agritech (SEED) gave back 79 cents to 10.25, and Conolog (CNLG) lost 75 cents to 2.98, a hefty percentage loss.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were up steadily all day and stair-stepped higher on the NDX, but were down in the morning and sideways for the rest of the session on the SPX and Dow today.

So a mixed close, but overall the patterns still look like potential bottoming-type patterns.

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