The stock market indices had a mixed session at the close, similar to the day before yesterday. The day started out with a real pop to the upside on strong futures, and they reached their highs within 10 minutes. They immediately sold off, taking the Nasdaq 100 from 2481.50 down to 2453, and then they rallied back in a 3-wave fashion into mid-afternoon before backing and filling into the close. The S&P 500 dropped from 1332 down to 1307, and rallied back to 1312.79 by the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 21.04 at 12,642.68, the S&P 500 down .61 to 1312.40, and the Nasdaq 100 up 2.63 at 2467.96.

Advance-declines were 17 to 12 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 13 to 11 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was slightly positive on New York, with total volume of 972 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.7 billion shares and had a 9 to 8 positive volume ratio.

It was a slightly positive day technically, and a mixed day at the close on the indices.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, had its ups and downs today, but there were some leaders. They included Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 3.47 to 456.48, making new all-time highs at 458.24 earlier in the day that generally helped the indices. Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 1.74 to 111.47, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) up 2.21 to 36.95.

Other gainers of note included Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE), up 1.23 to 7.38, or 20%; Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTI) up 44 cents to 3.36, or 15%; low-priced Vringo, Inc. Common Stock (VRNG) up 24 cents to 1.40, or 21%; and FriendFinder Networks Inc. (FFN) 23 cents to 1.29, or 21.7%.

In addition, Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (MSPD) was up 77 cents to 6.41, Array BioPharma Inc. (ARRY) 35 cents to 2.75, VocalTec Communications Ltd. (CALL) 2.09 to 19.30, BSQUARE Corporation (BSQR) 46 cents to 3.97, and ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) 1.07 to 9.98.

Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AVL) gained 33 cents to 3.35, and Mattel, Inc. (MAT) set a new 13-year high on increased dividends on good earnings today, up 1.47 to 31.00 even. 11%;

Among other gainers of note on our board, BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) advanced 2.91 to 23.94, Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) 3.62 to 41.60, VeriFone Systems, Inc (PAY) 3.29 to 42.70, United States Steel Corp. (X) 1.46 to 30.19, Approach Resources Inc. (AREX) 1.18 to 35.13, McKesson Corporation (MCK) 3.03 to 81.72, Warnaco Group Inc. (WRC) 2.00 to 58.25, Michael Kors Holdings (KORS) 1.11 to 30.95, and Cepheid (CPHD) 1.40 to 44.06.

On the downside, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) lost 1.52 to 42.28 as did most solar energy stocks did today after a ruling out of Germany. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was down 5.23 to 120.20, which hurt the indices, while Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) fell 1.10 to 40.94 and Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) dropped 1.19 to 31.01.

Those were the only multiple-point losers on our board today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up to session highs early on within the first 10 minutes, sold off very sharply, took out a couple minor layers of support, but held at the third level minor layer, and then snapped back in shallow fashion to close mixed on the session.

It wasn’t the best day, and even though they bent, they did not crack. At this point, they’ll have to take out yesterday’s low down around 2434 NDX, and down around 1301 zone on the S&P 500, to be able to take out key support at this point.

Those are the levels we‘ll be watching.

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