The stock market indices ended Friday very similar to the way they ended Thursday, mixed with the Nasdaq down and the blue chips higher.

Despite the fact that they opened with big gaps to the upside and had a strong early morning thrust, and despite the fact that the S&P 500 bounced, the NDX failed to do so and they both headed lower. By mid-morning they were consolidating with the S&P 500 forming a wedge of sorts. However, the NDX was not cooperating and made lower lows. When the downside pressure from Nasdaq large caps continued, they eventually rolled over into early afternoon, bounced mid afternoon, and then rolled over sharply into the last hour or so, reaching the session lows. At that point the NDX had dropped from 2222 down to 2186. The S&P 500 dropped from 1280 to 1268; however, they did bounce in the last hour and managed to preserve gains in the blue chips.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 42.84 at 12,004.28, managing to hold onto 12,000. The S&P 500 was up 3.86 at 1271.50, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 6.97 at 2192.96 and closing 30 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 19 to 11 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and barely ahead by 58 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of more than 1.5 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 2.4 billion and had a 2 to 1 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but there were plenty of gainers today. Coffee stocks remained firm as Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) was up 1.50 to 15.59 and Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (CBOU) 1.18 to 12.10. GenMark Diagnostics, Inc. (GNMK) gained 1.70 to 6.02. Primo Water Corporation (PRMW) 1.88 to 13.14, RiT Technologies Ltd. (RITT) 44 cents to 10.18, continuing its winning ways, and BSD Medical Corp. (BSDM) 48 cents to 3.94.

In addition, BPZ Resources, Inc. (BPZ) jumped 51 cents to 3.53 on 13.6 million. Newcastle Investment Corp. (NCT) advanced 1.19 to 5.59, Genetic Technologies Ltd. (GENE) 75 cents to 5.67, and Central Garden & Pet Co. (CENT) 99 cents to 10.25.

On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 4.90 to 320.26 and is in danger of a key breakdown here. SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) dropped 3.07 to 51.45, and Cree Inc. (CREE) 1.33 to 34.27.

Among the ultra-short ETFs, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) lost 1.22 to 49.27, but the ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) was up 2.05 to 51.08.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, moved down sharply, remained lower all morning until midday when they bounced only to fail at the declining tops lines and moving averages and rolled over into the last hour. They did manage to snapback to preserve gains on the blue chips, with the Dow closing back over 12,000.

It was a rather weak mixed session to close the week and the over all trend is still down. We haven’t seen a reversal yet, so we’ll be watching to see if we can put a bottom in next week.

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