The stock market indices had a topsy-turvy day, running up hard in the morning, and coming up to key overhead resistance at 2400 on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1315-16 area on the S&P 500. They pulled back down in what looked like a consolidated effort for more upside, but when they broke early afternoon, they came down the rest of the session, reversing the S&P 500 and Dow into negative territory at the close and paring the NDX gains all the way back from 30 points to only 4.61.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 62.44 at 12,240.11, and the S&P 500 down 4.22 at 1300.67, but the Nasdaq 100 was up 4.61 at 2371.77.

Advance-declines were negative by 40 issues on the New York Stock Exchange and negative by 35 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 960 million. Nasdaq traded over 2 billion with about an 11 to 9 negative plurality, not too bad.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with quite a few gainers as well as losers today. Leading the way, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) was up 3.94 to 64.32 and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) up 5.74 to 70.79. Both of those closed off their highs, but still held strong gains for the day.

Among the low-priced stocks, Sino-Global Shipping America, Ltd. (SINO) was up 68 cents to 6.02, NeurogesX, Inc. (NGSX) 37 cents to 2.33, and Dynavax Technologies Corporation (DVAX) 41 cents to 2.84.

Other gainers of note included Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR), up an amazing 14.46 to 102.57, or 16.4%, after being as high as 107.27 earlier. Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) jumped 2.76 to 20.00, or 16%, and GNC Corp. (GNC), which we traded today, was up 2.72 to 24.05, or 13%. CROCS Inc. (CROX) gained 4.16 to 30.92, Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (RGR) 3.82 to 27.89, and Rightnow Technologies Inc. (RNOW) 4.16 to 32.99.

On the downside, there were fractional losses for the most part. Point-plus losers on our board were Sequans Communications S.A. Ame (SQNS) down 6.88 to 8.55, or 45%, on negative news, and Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR), which had a run up in the last couple days and gave back 1.43 to 31.07.

Other than those there were no losses as much as a point on our board.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, consolidated midday, and rolled over hard in the afternoon to new lows on the S&P 500 and Dow, but above the lows on the NDX.

It was quite the negative close for the indices today. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

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