The stock market indices ended mixed today, but had a volatile path to get there. They started the day out moving down, bounced a little bit, and then moved sharply lower, taking out key support on the indices, but secondary support held. They bounced back in a steady 5-wave advance and pulled back sharply until the last hour. However, in the last 30 minutes or so, they came on strongly and spiked up on news that BP Exploration plc (BP) had potentially capped their oil well spill and that Goldman Sachs (GS) was going to settle with the SEC.

Large-cap, high tech stocks led the way higher, but did not manage to close positively today. As a result the indices ended mixed.

Net on the day at the end of the day, the Dow was down 7.41 at 10,359.31, the S&P 500 up just 1.31 at 1096.48, and Nasdaq 100 up just 2.83 at 1856.24.

Advance/declines were 15 to 14 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, but 2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was near flat on New York and 5 to 4 positive on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was very mixed. Leading the way, Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 6.16 at 145.22, and traded near 148 in the aftermarket. Google Inc. (GOOG) was up 2.68 at 494.02, but traded 16 points lower in the aftermarket after releasing earnings. Transocean Ltd. (RIG) gained 2.34 at 54.70 and BP Exploration plc (BP) 2.74 at 38.92, as a result of the news that no new oil is flowing into the Gulf.

Other stocks of note, portfolio position Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) rose 85 cents to 18.80, and L & L Energy, Inc. (LLEN) added 28 cents to 10.30, after releasing excellent earnings.

In the ultra-short ETF sector, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) jumped 96 cents to 35.45 along with the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) that jumped 63 cents to 40.62.

On the downside, the only point-plus losers today included Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) down 1.54 at 32.45, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) down 1.24 at 122.06, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) down 1.28 at 251.45.

Large fractional losers included OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI), which gave back 80 cents to 22.17. IDT Corporation (IDT) lost 61 cents at 15.69, Cree Inc. (CREE) 73 cents at 68.27, and Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI) 76 cents at 30.79.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early in the morning, rallied back to retest the highs, and then backed off sharply, but with a half hour to go came on again very sharply and then closed at the session highs going away. Only a last 5-minute slight pullback prevented them from closing at the exact tick high for the day.

The indices gave a good accounting of themselves, holding the moving averages on the hourly charts and closing back up near the rally highs. We’ll see if any further upside can be gotten, but the S&P 500 still has formidable resistance at the 1099-1100 range to contend with, which it backed off from late in the session.

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