The stock market indices started the day to the plus side but failed at resistance and rolled over hard in the morning. They reached the session lows on a spike down just before noon at about the 1873 area on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1195 area on the S&P 500. At that point they began a stair-step move back up, which accelerated over the course of the afternoon and closed with the indices back into the plus column, but just barely.

Net on the day, the Dow closed up 5.67 at 10,625.83, but that was 190 points off its low. The S&P 500 closed 22 points off the low, up 1.26 at 1136.95, and Nasdaq 100, 43 points off the low, up 8.35 to 1915.45. That was a pretty strong snapback.

However, the technicals were not able to get back into the plus column, as decliners led advancers by 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange and by 14 to 13 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 negative on New York and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Total volume was 1.4 billion on New York and about 2 1/4 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed but mostly lower. However, leading the way on the plus side, Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) was up 2.13 to 41.03 and Cree Inc. (CREE) up 3.14 to 75.24. The Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares ETF (EDZ), despite the gains, gained 1.03 to 48.85, although that closed 3 points off its early morning high of 51.90.

Other stocks of note: ARCA Biopharma, Inc. (ABIO) jumped 54 cents closing at 4.81, 70 cents off its high. Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) advanced 50 cents to 25.69. Delcath Systems Inc. (DCTH) had a big day today, up 1.16 to 14.69, and Vivus (VVUS) gained 63 cents to 12.47, along with Zoltek Companies Inc. (ZOLT) up 30 cents to 10.44.

The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) was up 62 cents to 27.48, another ultra-short ETF that gained today.

On the downside, Hauppauge Digital Inc. (HAUP) gave back a chunk of its gains from Thursday and Friday, closing at 2.82, down a whopping 1.11 on 7 million shares today. RINO International Corp (RINO) in a weak Chinese sector was down 1.80 to 13.64. Brigham Exploration (BEXP) gave back 56 cents to 16.40, Baidu Inc. (BIDU) 80 cents to 73.18, Houston American Energy Group (HUSA) 44 cents to 11.34, and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) 93 cents to 22.50.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were mixed early on, then plunged to new retest the lows before a very solid snapback afternoon session brought the indices back in the plus column. But we’ll see whether they can take out more formidable overhead resistance near 1920 on the NDX and 1142 on the SPX and extend the rally or whether that resistance becomes tough to get through and results in a market rollover.

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