The stock market indices had a mixed session with Nasdaq leading the way up today. However, the blue chips were lower. Nasdaq trailed yesterday and tried to play catch-up today, while the market consolidated.

The day started out with a bang to the upside, and reached the session highs and rally highs on the S&P 500 up around 1251 and change early on today. The NDX at that point got up to 2314. They then had a sharp sell-off, reaching near the 2290-91 zone on the NDX from the 2314 area. The S&P 500 dropped from 1251 down to 1240, but they bounced, and pulled back again to retest S&P 500, and held. The NDX made a higher high, and then they rallied into the afternoon making slightly new highs for the day on the NDX, reaching near 2315. The S&P 500 could not get anywhere near the earlier highs, and backed off into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 25.20 at 12,020.48, which wasn’t bad after being up 400 yesterday. The S&P 500 was down just 2.38 to 1244.58, and the Nasdaq 100 up 14.00 even at 2309.20.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 2 negative on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 negative on New York, with total volume of about 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded 1.8 billion shares and had a 4 to 3 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com, as a result, was mixed today. Leading the way again today were some of the large-cap stocks. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 5.73 to 387.93, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) up 4.84 to 197.13, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.45 to 189.45, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) 1.48 to 323.04. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) snapped back from some of the losses it had yesterday, up 2.64 to 67.17.

Some of the low-priced stocks had a big day. Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (TSPT), a stock that we traded today, was up 1.51 to 8.48, or nearly 22%, on 3.3 million shares. Magal Security Systems Ltd. (MAGS) was up 86 cents to 5.08, Zoltek Companies Inc. (ZOLT) 86 cents to 9.07, and Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) 36 cents to 7.69.

Other stocks of note included low-priced Bon-Ton Stores Inc. (BONT) up 52 cents to 3.15, or 20%; ZOOM Technologies, Inc. (ZOOM) 23 cents to 1.16, or 24%; Dex One Corporation (DEXO) 33 cents to 1.64, or 15%; Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX) 30 cents to 1.35, or 28 1/2%; La-Z-Boy Inc. (LZB) 1.67 to 11.57, or 17%; Movado Group, Inc. (MOV) 2.10 to 17.83, or 13%; Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO) 1.29 to 10.99, or 13%; and Pizza Inn Holdings, Inc. (PZZI) 81 cents to 6.45, or 14%.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) was up 1.49 to 53.92, and Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) jumped 1.30 to 9.47, or 15.9%.

In addition, Focus Media Holding Ltd. (FMCN) was up 1.19 to 19.71, Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MNTA) 1.21 to 16.25, Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) 1.44 to 29.11, and Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 1.29 to 40.25.

On the downside, Goldman Sachs (GS) was down 1.43 to 94.43 in a weak financial sector, and Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) down 1.32 to 43.63.

Ultra-short VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was down 2.05 to 43.48, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) down 99 cents to 40.82.

The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) dropped 97 cents to 43.87, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) gave back 1.15 to 60.89.

It was a mixed picture, but a very good consolidation day. However, the S&P 500 on the hourly charts is right at the 5-week declining topsline, and that’s what may have caused the consolidation and pullback today. So, we’ll see if it can pop through.

Resistance now is at the 1250-51 area on the S&P 500, and near 2315 on the NDX.

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