The stock market indices suffered through a nasty, sloppy, mixed session today, and if it wasn’t for the first opening gaps, they would be down and ugly. They gapped up right at the get-go, and immediately sold off.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 46.47 at 11,869.95, almost 100 points off the high. The S&P 500 dropped from 1225.60 down to 1212.12, and closed at 1215.85, up 4.03. The Nasdaq 100 dropped from 2253 to 2223, closing at 2226.71, down 6.32.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and a little less than 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was also 3 to 2 positive on New York, with total volume of light 750 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded 1.63 billion shares and had a slightly negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed, with just a few point gainers and losers. Low-priced SuperMedia Inc. (SPMD) was up 58 cents to 3.10, or 23%, but traded as high as 4.24 at one point today. Gevo, Inc. (GEVO) gained 73 cents to 6.37, or 13%, and LiveDeal, Inc. (LIVE) 70 cents to 6.37, or 12%, having traded a point higher earlier. ExamWorks Group, Inc. (EXAM) jumped 1.02 to 8.87, or 13%, and Central European Distribution Corp. (CEDC) 52 cents to 5.16, or 11%.

In addition, FedEx Corporation (FDX), which we traded today, was outstanding, up 6.18 to 83.47. WebMD Health Corp. (WBMD) advanced 3.14 to 37.75, First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG) 1.42 to 16.05, Georgia Gulf Corp. (GGC) 1.27 to 18.68, Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AUXL) 1.09 to 18.54, The Babcock & Wilcox Company (BWC) 1.19 to 22.13, and Oshkosh Corporation (OSK) 1.05 to 21.10.

Airlines were strong again today, with United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL) up 81 cents to 20.64, and Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) 44 cents to 8.59, although it did sell off in the last few minutes.

Large-cap stocks did not do well today. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was down 1.25 to 378.94, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) down 2.00 to 31.45, Goldman Sachs (GS) 1.35 to 91.90, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.24 to 187.48, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 1.32 to 69.72.

As you can see, there was weakness among the larger-cap stocks.

News across the board late in the session about the SEC appealing a judge's rejection of a major Citigroup (C) civil securities fraud settlement knocked the market down in the last 15 minutes to close near the lows for the day.

We’ll just have to wait and 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.