The stock market indices had a volatile day today as they came down hard at the opening, double-bottomed early on, and then rallied sharply midday only to pullback in a very organized, orderly pattern to test support. That was successful, and then in the last hour they exploded, ran up to the triple-top to the 1267 area on the S&P 500 at a nominal new high. They backed off sharply into the close, down about 6 points quickly to around 1261 S&P 500. The Nasdaq 100 dropped back about 12 points from 2332 to 2320, both in the last five minutes.

It was an unfortunate late, quick sell-off that took the NDX back into the negative column just slightly, but the blue chips were up today. At the end of the day, the Dow closed marginally higher on the blue chips, and just a fraction lower than Nasdaq 100.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 46.24 at 12,196.37, and the S&P 500 up 2.54 at 1261.01, but the Nasdaq 100 closed down just .95 at 2320.54.

Advance-declines were about 180 issues higher on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 150 issues lower on Nasdaq. It was very narrow today. Up/down volume was 5 to 3 positive on New York, with total volume of a light 900 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded 1.57 billion shares and had an 8 to 7 negative plurality.

It was more of a consolidation day today.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed again today. There were both gainers and losers today. It was a big comeback day for low-priced Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK), which jumped from a session low of 7.20 with a high of 8.66, backed off to 8.30, up 86 cents, or 11 1/2%, on 1 3/4 million shares. That was good volume for that stock.

In addition, China Medical Technologies Inc. (CMED), another stock we traded today, was up 72 cents to 3.29. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (MSO) gained 1.04 to 4.16, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (KTOS), a swing trade of ours, up 55 cents to 6.22. LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. (LF) rose 52 cents to 5.92, Royale Energy Inc. (ROYL) 89 cents to 5.36, or nearly 20%, and Affymax, Inc. (AFFY) 48 cents to 5.86, though the trading was halted on an FDA decision.

SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) jumped 1.24 to 35.13 on news of a potential deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT).

Other stocks of note on our board today included The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. (MW), which we traded today. It had a stellar day, up 5.32 to 32.51. Mitcham Industries Inc. (MIND) rose 2.86 to 19.20, NCI Building Systems Inc. (NCS) 1.16 to 10.46, Groupon, Inc. (GRPN) 1.91 to 21.15, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 3.82 to 71.96, and First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) 1.88 to 47.99.

The financial sector was strong today. Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 3.97 to 105.13, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) 77 cents to 34.00 even, Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) 40 cents to 27.05, and Morgan Stanley (MS) 76 cents to 17.34.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 2.35 to 68.30. Ultra-short VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was also up today, jumping 2.52 to 45.27, although it traded over 47 earlier in the day. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) gained 1.19 to 41.73.

On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 1.86 to 389.09 and continues to act relatively weak.

Ultra-short Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was down 1.30 to 37.34.

Other than that, there were no losses of a point or more on our board today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down very sharply early. They had a very sharp snapback rally to fill the gaps and test resistance, which resulted in an afternoon orderly retracement that retested support and held. That resulted in a late, sharp snapback that tested the highs, but that also failed. They pulled back into the close, mixed on the session, but generally somewhat positive on NYSE, and just a tad negative on Nasdaq.

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.