The stock market indices closed mixed today, but had a wild ride. They opened lower, went down very sharply, took out support on the S&P 500, and dropped all the way down to the 1302 1/2 area, right near my second area of key support, and held. On the Nasdaq 100 they held the 2290 area, bounced sharply, and then backed and filled during the day with the S&P 500 having an upward bias. A 5-wave rally ensued from the morning lows that reached the session highs at about a half hour to go at 2350 NDX and near 1317 on the S&P 500. They did pullback a bit into the close to end mixed.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 14.16 at 12,285.15, and the S&P 500 up 0.11 at 1314.52. The Nasdaq 100, however, was down 5.38 at 2311.25, partially due to Apple Inc. (AAPL) dropping nearly 4 points today.

Advance declines were 15 to 14 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 14 to 11 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was almost dead-even flat on New York on total volume of 875 million. Nasdaq traded 1.7 billion and was pretty close to dead-even flat with a slightly downward bias.

TheTechTrader.com board had a big day today with many multiple point-plus gainers. Leading the way today, Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (ACOR) was up 5.71 to 27.13, JB Hunt Transport Services Inc. (JBHT) up 2.93 to 47.53, InterMune Inc. (ITMN) 4.13 to 51.08, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) 2.79 to 41.57, Youku.com Inc (YOKU) 6.97 to 64.35, and Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. A (QIHU), another Chinese stock that did very well, up 3.42 to 29.07.

In addition, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) was up 3.28 to 73.37, an all-time new high. Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AVL), another one in the rare-earth group, didn't participate much today, up only .10 to 9.74, but Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) jumped 68 cents to 16.14.

Sky-mobi Limited (MOBI) advanced 1.59 to 14.60, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 1.70 to 77.77, Keynote Systems Inc. (KEYN) 1.13 to 21.48, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.02 to 164.97, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) 1.60 to 282.91.

Other stocks of note included Union Drilling, Inc. (UDRL) up 1.04 to 11.64, China North East Petroleum Holdings Limited (NEP) 1.05 to 4.30, a big percentage gain there, and low-priced Evergreen Solar Inc. (ESLR) 23 cents to 1.87.

On the downside multiple point-plus losers on our board today included Goldman Sachs (GS) down 4.38 to 155.79, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) down 3.71 to 332.42.

Stepping back and reviewing the hour chart patterns, the indices suffered a very sharp, early slide, held support, and then had a 5-wave rally back to new session highs with about twenty or thirty minutes to go, and then they backed off. Still, it was a win for the bulls today in my opinion. In any case, we'll see what transpires as the downtrend still remains intact overall.

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