The stock market indices opened strong, reached new 2010 highs early on at just under 2060 on the Nasdaq 100 and just under 1220 on the S&P 500. At that point they backed off, backed and filled for several hours, tried to rally in the afternoon, but when they couldn’t take out of resistance they rolled over rather hard, particularly on the S&P 500. They went to new session lows, bounced in the last hour, and then rolled over in the last few minutes.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 0.75, nearly unchanged, at 11,205.03. The S&P 500 fell 5.23 to 1212.05, and Nasdaq 100 lost 6.24 at 2049.09.

Advance-declines were negative by just under 200 issues on the New York Stock Exchange and by about 90 issues on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board, however, was mostly higher, with some point-plus gainers today. Leading the way was Frontier Financial Corporation (FTBK), which exploded and went as high as 7.90 at one point, closing at 5.88 up 2.90. A big day for that stock on heavy volume of 23 million shares traded today.

Other gainers of note: Delcath Systems (DCTH) gained 1.22 to 14.34, L&L Energy (LLEN) 1.20 to 11.92, and Dendreon (DNDN) 1.09 at 41.19, tagging 42.60 in the morning, a new all-time high today.

Houston American Energy Corp. (HUSA) continued its snapback of recent days, up 1.06 to 14.33, and Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) advanced 1.08 to 26.20. Those were the point-plus gainers on our board today.

Other stocks of note: Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) jumped over 9 at one point, closing at 8.90, up 90 cents on 32 million. City Telecom HK (CTEL) at 16.17 was up 91 cents, China Agritech (CAGC) at 20 even up 65 cents, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) at 21.21 up 90 cents. PLX Technology (PLXT) jumped to 6.70 at one point, closing at 6.35, a new high for the year, up 44 cents on 1.3 million, breaking out today.

Zoltek Companies (ZOLT) also broke out today at 10.30, up 71 cents. RINO International (RINO) closed up 39 cents at 19.20, Mindspeed Technologies (MSPD) 35 cents at 9.01, Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO) 36 cents at 8.70, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3x (FAZ) 55 cents at 11.64, right near the session high.

On the downside, Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE) lost 1.95 to 19.63, the only point-plus loser on the board.

Other fractional losers included Pharmacyclics (PCYC) down 65 cents to 7.30, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) down 32 cents to 20.78, and Pixelworks Inc. (PXLW) down 29 cents to 4.52.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices early on reached new 2010 highs and then backed down, and consolidated for most of the session until late in the afternoon when they tried to rally but couldn’t get through resistance, and rolled over into the close. They closed mixed on the day, but it looked like a distribution session today. We’ll see if the downside afternoon break on the SPX, which was not confirmed by the NDX, gets some confirmation tomorrow or if the indices can break down to the next key support around the 1208-10 zone on the SPX. Beneath that support at 1200 and then 1190 loom.

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