It was a minor turn-around Tuesday as the indices were soft today and closed lower, but just slightly so. The day started out with backing and filling action, and then they shot forward to new rally highs by midday, reaching over 1338 on the S&P 500. That was a nominal new rally high. The Nasdaq 100, however, was far from last Friday’s high when it reached near 2360 by getting to only 2342 or so today. At that point in the afternoon they stair-stepped lower and rolled over to retest yesterday’s lows on the NDX, while the S&P 500 sold off rather quickly and sharply as well. They did manage to firm right at the closing bell, but still closed down just a tad.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 6.13 at 12,393.90, the S&P 500 down 0.24 at 1332.63, and the Nasdaq 100 down 6.67 at 2327.87.

My big concern today was large-cap stocks like Apple Inc. (AAPL) and several others that were weak today, which could lead to some further downside at some point, but we’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, key short-term support at around the 2300-2400 level on the NDX and the1329-30 level on the S&P 500 may be tested tomorrow. We’ll see if it holds or not.

TheTechTrader.com board had a very big day today. Recent favorite Pharmasset, Inc. (VRUS) was up 10.35 to 94.86, a huge move for this stock. Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) jumped 4.57 to 80.86, and VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) 4.05 to 27.50.

Silver stocks were very strong today with silver over $39 an ounce today. First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG) closed up 2.10 to 25.61, Endeavour Silver Corp. (EXK) 95 cents to 11.13, and Mag Silver Corp. (MVG) up 1.44 to 13.15, almost a 12 1/2% gain there.

In addition, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) gapped and closed up 3.08 to 18.00 even. Diamond Foods, Inc. (DMND) had a big day, up 3.84 to 61.06. Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CBST) gained 3.76 to 29.01, Almaden Minerals Ltd. (AAU) 81 cents to 4.85, a big percentage gain there, and Alon USA Energy, Inc. (ALJ) 77 cents to 14.67, a new all-time high.

Among other gainers of note, a recent swing trade of ours, Procera Networks, Inc. (PKT), was up 1.41 to 10.74, a nice gain there. Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (JAZZ) advanced another 1.39 to 33.52, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) another 1.78 to 38.65, and Uroplasty Inc. (UPI), which we put out as a swing trade today, up 1.05 to 7.87. Harry Winston Diamond Corporation (HWD) gained 86 cents to 17.77, not far from the high for the day. Blue Dolphin Energy Company (BDCO) was up 64 cents to 7.90, which was another highlight, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) jumped 2.35 to 185.29.

On the downside, as noted earlier, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 2.30 to 338.89, Ultratech, Inc. (UTEK) 1.27 to 26.84, and in afterhours American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), which closed over 24.00, was down to around 14 1/2, plummeting nearly 10 points in afterhours on lowered guidance.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were mixed at the opening, backed and filled, held support, and then rallied to new highs for the entire rally on the S&P 500, just nominally so, but failed to get a confirmation by far from the NDX, and then they rolled over in the afternoon. My concern is that this could lead to lower levels. We’ll be watching support carefully and see what the breadth looks like. Today’s breadth was rather marginal as total volume on the New York Stock Exchange was about 800 million, but advance declines were narrow. On Nasdaq they were only up by about 59 issues.

It was a day that was mixed, and narrowly so, closing slightly lower on the averages, and we’ll have to see whether this is just a consolidation, pullback-type of retest session or whether it leads to something worse.

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