The stock market indices started out the week with a flat day. An afternoon sell-off brought them back down from mid-afternoon gains in a session that was choppy.

The day started out with a move up off the get-go. The indices rolled over hard into midday where they reached their session lows around the 2214-15 zone on the Nasdaq and 1256 S&P 500. They then rallied from there, and in the next 45-50 minutes or so reached their afternoon highs at 2233 NDX and 1277 S&P 500. That was key overhead resistance, from where they rolled over into the close to take back much of the profits, closing flat on the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 1.06 at 11,952.97, the S&P 500 up 0.85 at 1271.83, and the Nasdaq 100 up 1.19 at 2222.28.

Advance-declines were 17 to 13 negative on the New York Stock Exchange and 16 1/2 to 9 1/2 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down was flat on New York with total volume just under 900 million shares. Nasdaq traded about 1.7 billion and had an 11 to 6 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, though fractionally lower, did have some big percentage gainers today. Leading the way, Recon Technology, Ltd. (RCON) rose 73 cents to 3.40, Orsus Xelent Technologies Inc. (ORS) 1.69 to 5.50, Boingo Wireless, Inc. (WIFI) 2.46 to 10.11, Majesco Entertainment Co. (COOL) 39 cents to 4.39, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BCRX) 45 cents to 4.00 even, and ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) 65 cents to 12.28.

In addition, Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR) jumped 1.58 to 12.09, A123 Systems, Inc. (AONE) 48 cents to 5.00 even, and 8x8 Inc. (EGHT) 32 cents to 3.78. Also, Sequans Communications S.A. Ame (SQNS) advanced 1.06 to 13.56.

Among the ultra-short ETFs were two stocks that we gave out as day trades today. They included ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) up 1.92 to 47.15 and ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) up 1.35 to 19.17.

On the downside, the losers today included SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) down 4.77 to 52.59, and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) down 2.55 to 48.94. The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) lost 1.23 to 49.34.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, down midday, back up early afternoon, and pulled back down at the end of the day, closing near flat on the session.

Despite oversold conditions, the market was unable to put on a show today. However, resistance around the 2233-34 zone on the NDX and 1277 on the S&P 500 will be closely monitored tomorrow to see if they can break out and turn this around.

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