The stock market indices plunged at the opening on lower pre-market futures, but then they immediately reversed after reaching the session lows at 2095 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1178 S&P 500. They rallied back into positive territory sharply, with the NDX moving from 2095 to 2124, and the SPX rallying from 1178 to 1187.

They rolled over in the afternoon, retested successfully, and then bounced. When they couldn’t break out at the end of the day, they rolled over a bit, backed off, but still ended up slightly positive on the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was up just 5.41 at 11,169.46, the S&P 500 up 2 cents at 1185.64, and the Nasdaq 100 up 5.50 at 2119.05.

Advance-declines were about 8 to 7 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and negative by just 49 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was slightly negative on New York, with total volume of 950 million. Nasdaq traded about 1.9 billion and had about a 10 to 8 positive ratio.

So, a mixed picture today, and narrowly mixed indices, slightly positive at the close.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed as well, but there were several point-plus gainers today, and some of them large ones. Stratasys Inc. (SSYS) closed up 5.07 to 33.46. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) was up 5.08 to 40.23. OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) jumped 2.10 to 26.49, closing at a new 4 1/2 year high. Rent-A-Center Inc. (RCII) advanced 2.42 to 25.68, and SuperGen Inc. (SUPG) 49 cents to 2.82.

In addition, Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) was up 79 cents to 14.59, JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (JKS) 88 cents to 28.00, and Isilon Systems, Inc. (ISLN) 49 cents to 28.95. IDT Corporation (IDT) snapped back 95 cents to 15.73. Exact Sciences Corporation (EXAS) gained 78 cents to 8.91, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 95 cents to 169.95.

On the downside, several of the market leaders, such as Apple Inc. (AAPL), were down fractions. Radware Ltd. (RDWR) was the loss leader on our board, down 1.91 to 34.02, the only stock on our board down more than a point.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early, snapped back sharply mid-day, backed and filled in the afternoon, and then closed at the upper end of the range for the day, as the indices were successful in working their way back to just slightly positive today.

Today’s early morning dip was a very strong critical test of support, particularly on the NDX around the 2100 area, and S&P 500 support now around the 1178 area followed by 1172 will be closely watched in the coming days.

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