The indices had another up-session on Tuesday, the day the Fed announced another interest rate hike, and as usual the market was pretty quiet in the morning in a very narrow range before the announcement.  Then the market exploded, backed and filled, and then pulled back again after failing to make new highs on the Nasdaq 100, despite the S&P 500 new rally highs.

Net on the day they managed to stay in positive territory, with the Dow up 56, the S&P 500 up 7, the Nasdaq 100 7 1/2 and the SOX up 2.64.

Reviewing the technicals, advance-declines were barely positive by 100 issues on New York and negative by 125 issues on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 10 to 7 positive with 1.7 billion traded on New York, and nearly dead-even flat on Nasdaq with more than 1.8 billion traded.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly changed.  There were some outstanding issues, both up and down.

On the plus side, ENER advanced 1.39 on 1.4 million, and VRTX was up 1.01 on 1 ¼ million.  SNTO gained 80 cents on a half million shares, and BRCM hit a new 4-year high today, closing at 49 ½, up 63 cents.

On the downside, BOOM gave back 1.07 and REDF 90 cents.

Other than that, all stocks on my board were narrowly mixed today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly index chart patterns, the indices reached for and tested 2005 highs today on the S&P, and fell short on the Nasdaq 100. They then sold off at the end of the day, taking profits after the post Fed announcement burst.

But they remained above key price support and moving averages on the hourly charts, and look positive going forward.

Good trading!

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. For more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a FREE 15-day trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary, or sign up for a Free 30-Day Trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.