The stock market indices had a mixed session at the close, but it took a strong 5-wave advance from around noon to the end of the day -- where they closed near the afternoon highs going away -- to bring the indices back from sharp losses in the morning. The Dow still did not manage to get above the zero line.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 68.79 at 12,479.58, the S&P 500 down 0.49 at 1328.38, about 10 points off the low, and Nasdaq 100 up 5.66 at 2343.51, which was 23 points off the low and a substantial comeback today. However, I’m not convinced that this is anything more than a technical bounce, as the McClellan Oscillator was below -100 today, which could have been oversold enough to create a bounce, especially as the indices were down further in the morning before the reversal.

Advance-declines also did not get back in the plus column. They were about 3 to 2 negative on both the New York Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 4 negative on New York with total volume of about 945 million shares. Nasdaq traded about 2.2 billion shares and had a 4 to 3 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com had many advances on our board today. Those included eLong Inc. (LONG), which exploded for almost 12 points at one point today, and closed up 9.62 to 26.58, or 56.72%, on 1.596 million shares. That’s huge for a stock whose average volume is under 15,000.

Gulf Resources, Inc. (GFRE), a day trade pick of ours, was up 1.15 to 4.18, nearly a 38% gain. MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) rose 3.88 to 27.39, and Photronics Inc. (PLAB) 96 cents to 8.96.

Among other gainers of note, Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) was up 2.09 to 44.64. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) snapped back 1.47 to 58.99, 5 points off his low, which was a nice reversal on 8.3 million shares traded. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was up 2.30 to 194.81, Apple Inc. (AAPL) jumped 6 points off its low, up 2.84 to 336.14, a nice reversal there, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) also reversed 5 points and closed up 1.64 to 170.50, on 8.75 million.

In addition, ServiceSource International, In (SREV), in another reversal, snapped back 1.60 to close up off its low, up 1.06 to 18.59. Swing portfolio position Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) gained 1.23 to 17.10. Vermillion, Inc. (VRML) was up 46 cents to 5.39, Oxigene Inc. (OXGN) 63 cents to 4.98, junior biotect BioScrip Inc. (BIOS) 47 cents to 7.46, and Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AVL) reversed 60 cents off its low, closing up 30 cents to 6.86.

On the downside today, losers included stocks from the Boxer Shorts list. Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) was down 1.68 to 23.11, and Cree Inc. (CREE) 2.08 to 39.31, both on negative earnings reports.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down at the opening, snapped back to resistance, and then they rolled over to set new lows for the pullback. But they could not follow through to the downside and stair-stepped their way back over the next several hours to close at the session highs on the NDX, and near the afternoon rally highs, below the session highs, on the S&P 500.

We’ll see if this is more than just a technical snapback, or whether they're going to be rolling over near the resistance level just ahead and moving to even lower lows.

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