The stock market indices did a reversal today. They were down slightly, but it was a kind of sleepy, slow session, basically a continuation of yesterday’s afternoon pullback, where the indices drifted lower in an orderly fashion in a neat down-channel both on the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500. At the end of the day they were not able to break back out and rally, but they also did not break down, and ended the day slightly down.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 17.90 at 12,018.63. The S&P 500 closed down 4.61 at 1293.77, and the Nasdaq 100 fell 4.74 at 2257.96.

However, advance-declines were 3 to 2 negative on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 negative on New York on light total volume of just over 800 million shares. Nasdaq traded about 1.65 billion shares with a 3 to 2 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly mixed, but there were several interesting gainers, particularly among low-priced junior oils and biotech stocks. The rare-earth group was outstanding today. Leading the way in that group was Molycorp, Inc. (MCP), which had a stellar day, up 7.89 up 52.57, just a penny of the high for the day on 15 million shares. Avalon Rare Metals, Inc. Ordina (AVL), which we traded today, was up 89 cents to 7.63. Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) advanced 2.50 to 12.88, and China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources, Inc. (SHZ) was up 1.00 to 4.48.

It was a very strong day for that group, as the Chinese are causing price pressures upward in rare-earth and metals.

In the junior oil group, Blue Dolphin Energy Company (BDCO) was up 1.55 to 6.95, Royale Energy Inc. (ROYL) 1.02 to 6.02, and Lucas Energy, Inc. (LEI) jumped 58 cents to 4.05.

In addition, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) jumped 4.10 to 53.97, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 1.90 to 341.20.

Junior biotech Prana Biotechnology Ltd. (PRAN) continued its winning way, up 98 cents to 3.68, or 36.3%. Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AEN) gained 28 cents to 1.75, St. Jude Medical (STJ) jumped 2.97 to 51.41, and Flotek Industries Inc. (FTK) 71 cents to 8.06.

On the downside leading the way, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) lost 3.61 to 243.89, along with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) down 1.92 to 162.60. Several large-cap Nasdaq stocks had a difficult session today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened slightly lower, and then moved back and forth in a slightly lower trend today, but for the most part continued yesterday’s consolidation. When you step back and look at the hourly charts, the patterns do look like flag-type, bullish consolidations, which could result in more upside.

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