The stock market indices were choppy but higher today and closed with the S&P 500 not far off the highs for the day.

The day started out with a gap up and then a sharp little early pop. A quick pullback held support, and when that occurred the indices surged back higher, reaching the session highs in early morning on the Nasdaq 100 just under 1820. The S&P 500 at that point reached just under 1106. After They pulled back down and retested, with the SPX made a nominal new session high but the NDX did not confirm and then they rolled over, getting the largest intraday pullback. Late in the session, however, during the last half hour, the indices snapped back to close quite positive on the session.

Net on the day the Dow was up 91.75 at 10,374.16, the S&P 500 up 10.64 at 1105.24, and the Nasdaq 100 up 18.69 at 1812.51. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up nearly 2 percent today, or 6.40, at 339.27.

Advance-declines were 3 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and less than 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was better than 3 to 1 positive on total volume just a shade under 1 billion. The Nasdaq traded just a shade over 2 billion and had just under a 3 to 1 positive ratio on advancing volume over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board, however, was narrowly mixed with just a few point-plus gainers and losers on the plus side today. Among the ultralong ETFs, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) 74.56 was up 3.19, and the Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) 1.23 to 51.01.

Also on the plus side, the big gainer today was TOR Minerals (TORMD), which had a 1 for 5 reverse split become effective. The stock jumped 2.50 to close at 5.10 a huge percentage gain. Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) on a positive FDA ruling gained 4.96 to 29.21.

Other gainers of note were Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) up 93 cents to 16.31, McMoRan (MMR) 95 cents to 16.24, and PositiveID (PSID) 56 cents to 1.74, a big percentage gain there. TASER International Inc. (TASR) snapped back 26 cents to 7.23.

On the downside, China Automotive (CAAS) fell 1.08 to 19.22, China Agritech (CAGC) 1 at 22.23, and Telestone Technologies (TSTC) 1.55 to 18.95. They were the point-plus losers in a generally weak Chinese sector today. Other losses of note in that sector were SmartHeat (HEAT) which dropped 64 cents to 12 and RINO International (RINO) losing 58 cents to 19.62.

Also on the downside, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3x (FAZ) gave back 86 cents to 17.79, the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3x (BGZ) 49 cents to 16.86, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3x (TZA) 24 cents to 9.15. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) lost 48 cents to 26.80.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, despite a choppy session the indices managed to close near the high end of the range and had a positive snapback session after yesterday’s steep decline. So, no downside follow through yet. It’s going to be interesting to see whether overhead resistance near 1820 and 1830 on the NDX turns out to be formidable or not. There should be some resistance at 1106 and 1112-13 zones on the SPX, which is what we’ll be keeping an eye on tomorrow.

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