The indices did well to finish strong on Friday, but ended mixed on the day.

The day started out with a slightly move down which held support.  Then they had a sharp rally that took us to new 2005 highs on the Nasdaq 100.  The S&P 500, however, did not confirm.  Although it did move up, it did not reach the levels reached last week, and fell short.  As a result the market then backed off and retested, again successfully during the lunch hour, and then firmed up in the afternoon to close at the highs for the day going away and the highs for the year as well on the Nasdaq, closing at 1709.10, the exact high for the year.  That was up 4.82.

But the blue chips weren't quite as fortunate with the Dow down 35 and the S&P only up 0.4.  The OEX was also off 51 cents today, so you can see the mixed picture.  On the plus side the SOX Index was up 3.68, and that certainly helped Nasdaq stay positive today.

The technicals were narrowly mixed to the plus side.  NYSE advance-declines were ahead by about 180 issues.  On Nasdaq they were ahead by a little bit more than 200 issues.  Up/down volume, however, was about 8 to 7 negative on New York with about 1.5 billion traded.  Nasdaq traded nearly 1.8 billion with about a little less than 2 to 1 positive ratio on up/down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative today, but losers were down mostly small fractions.  The loss leaders included IIJI on a poor showing for their IPO in Japan.  The stock was off 2.70 on 6 ¾ million shares.  The other point-plus loser was RMBS, down 1.02.

FORD was down 79 cents, REDF down 63 cents, and PWEI backed off 48 cents from yesterday's big gain.

On the plus side, ATEA was up 1.09, which was the only stock on my board other than BRCM, up 1.18, to advance as much as a point.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices did well to come back this week from three days of losses with a bang on Thursday and then holding their own on Friday, and closing strongly.  So next week we should see a continuance of the move based on current patterns, and we see how far they can extend this.

Good trading!

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. For more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a FREE 15-day trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary, or sign up for a Free 30-Day Trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.