The stock market indices had a mixed day today with the Nasdaq up and the Dow and S&P 500 down.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 40.72 at 11,478.13, 100 points off its low. The S&P 500 fell 3.59 at 1203.86, 13 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 19.70 at 2326.88, 27 points off its low.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and there were more declines than advances by about 50 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of just under 1 billion. Nasdaq traded just 1 3/4 billion shares and had a 2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed today. But Nasdaq was strong, led by Apple Inc. (AAPL), up 6.24 to 408.43, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), up 3.39 to 117.01.

Other leaders of note on our board today included Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA), which jumped 1.09 to 13.01. TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. (TQNT) exploded for 1.46 to 7.39, a 25% gain. Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) jumped another 53 cents to 10.68, Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTI) was up 27 cents to 3.88, and ZOOM Technologies, Inc. (ZOOM) gained 36 cents to 2.20, or 20%.

In addition, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) was up 85 cents to 15.46 in a strong semiconductor group. Royale Energy Inc. (ROYL) was outstanding today, up 1.39 to 3.53, or 65%, on 2.2 million today. Clearwire Corporation (CLWR) was up 35 cents to 1.65, or 27%.

Also, Sina Corp. (SINA) advanced 14.40 to 92.88, or 18%, on 18 million shares traded. Range Resources Corporation (RRC) was up 5.52 to 68.44, or nearly 9%, on 7.2 million, and Akorn, Inc. (AKRX) added 69 cents to 8.88, or 8 1/2%, on 9 million. Mistras Group, Inc. (MG), a member of our Top 25 list, gained 1.62 to 22.10, or 7.9%, and Thor Industries Inc. (THO) was up 2.24 to 36.16, with Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) up 2.16 to 35.66.

Among the ultra-short ETFs, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was up 2.63 to 53.75, the UltraShort Silver (ZSL) 68 cents to 14.01, the ProShares UltraShort Gold (GLL) 21 cents to 18.11, and the ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) 82 cents to 55.72.

On the downside, Goldman Sachs (GS) was the only point-plus loser on our board today, down 2.96 to 96.15.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices moved down lower, tested support at 2300 NDX and 1190 S&P 500, and held in the morning. They bounced back in choppy fashion in an up-channel to retest yesterday’s double-top at 2332 late in the session, with the SPX testing 1208 at that point. That was far off from the high for the day at 1218-19. However, they then pulled down sharply, and in the last 15 minutes bounced in what looked like late short covering.

Let’s see how it goes on Friday.

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