The stock market indices closed mixed today, but were volatile. The day started out with a slight bump to the upside and then came down. After a brief, sharp pullback they rallied, with the Nasdaq 100 making new early highs and then testing them right at the 2335 level. The S&P 500 jumped right back to test the 1318 level, but didn’t get through. They rolled over very hard to new session lows and new pullback lows on the NDX at 2315 and S&P 500 at 1305 and change.

At that point they were oversold intraday and then started a rally and stair-stepped their way back up to nearly reaching the highs of the morning and the session highs only to rollover again in the last 30-40 minutes. They pulled back into a losing position on the Dow and S&P 500, but maintained gains on the NDX.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 41.59 at 12,248.55, the S&P 500 down 1.61 at 1312.94, and the Nasdaq 100 up 4.22 at 2326.70, although that was 9 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 16 to 14 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq was slightly positive by 14 issues. Up/down volume was 5 to 4 negative on declining volume over advancing volume on New York, with total volume of just under 1 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 1.9 billion and had a 10 to 8 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed but mostly lower, although there were many point-plus gainers. Leading the way today, Education Management Corporation (EDMC) was up 4.46 to 24.76. Hill International, Inc. (HIL) exploded on a new contract, up 2.57 to 6.93, or 58.9%. Corinthian Colleges Inc. (COCO) rose 1.07 to 5.06, Affymetrix Inc. (AFFX) 71 cents to 6.99, KV Pharmaceutical Co. (KV-A) 66 cents to 3.98, and BioScrip Inc. (BIOS) 42 cents to 7.84.

So, as can be seen, junior biotech stocks were pretty strong today.

In addition, MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) snapped back another 1.31 to 33.70. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) jumped 1.22 to 64.02. Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CBST) was up 1.19 to 38.06, and Star Scientific, Inc. (CIGX) 51 cents to 4.73.

Among other gainers, Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (OWW) soared 64 cents to 2.85, or 29%, after a court win over American Airlines. Agilysys Inc. (AGYS) gained 1.00 to 7.99, or 14%, and Imperial Sugar Co. (IPSU) 1.69 to 19.36, or nearly 10%.

On the downside, Goldman Sachs (GS) lost 1.79 to 134.38, but closed 3 points off its low after receiving a subpoena. That was the only point-plus loser on our board today.

Fractional losers included NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) down 59 cents to 26.51, Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) down 41 cents to 10.75, and Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (CSII) down 58 cents to 14.04.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early, and then snapped back with a solid rally attempt, but couldn’t take out resistance. They rolled over hard to new lows, but they did manage to work their way back to just underneath the session highs before rolling over again in the last hour to close mixed on the session.

We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but we may not be out of the woods yet.

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