The indices had a marginal up day on Tuesday. The session started out with a rally from the get-go that took them to new two-day rally highs. They backed off early on and went into a funk. The market basically went sideways and meandered in a six-point range on the Nasdaq 100 and a three-point range on the S&P 500 for several hours. Mid-afternoon, they tried to rally and came very close to the morning highs, backed off quickly on news of the GM and Ford bond downgrades, but that spike down held right at the rising trend lines and price support, and the indices bounced back but couldn’t get back above the earlier session highs.

Let's call today a consolidation day, with the action appearing to have been bullish.

At the end of the day, the Dow was up 37 1/3, the S&P 500 up 5 1/4, the Nasdaq 100 up 7 points and the Nasdaq Composite up 8 1/4. The SOX Semiconductor Index managed to get back in positive territory by about half a point.

Technicals were positive, but just slightly so. A little better in New York by 18 to 14 on advance declines, but only 15 to 14 on the Nasdaq.

Up/down volume was 8 to 5 positive. Total volume was about 1.45 billion on New York and about 1.65 billion on Nasdaq with about 9 to 7 1/2 plurality on advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed. On the positive side, the leader was Forward Industries (FORD), which went to an all-time high, up $1.29 on heavy volume. Other stocks of note: Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) went past $26 and closed at $25.90, up 75 cents. That’s a new three-and-half-year high. Arrhythmia Research Technology (HRT) was up 75 cents; Medicore (MDKI), one of our watch board stocks, up 63 cents; and World Poker Tour (WPTE), another watch board stock, up 29 cents.

On the losing side, CryptoLogic (CRYP) got hit for $1.33 and Novatel (NGPS) down $1.26. Other losses of note, junior energy stocks gave some back on a drop in crude oil. Georesources (GEOI) was down 50 cents, Able Energy (ABLE) down 28 cents, and alternative energy stock DayStar Technologies (DSTI) down 34 cents. Sigma Designs (SIGM) backed off 30 cents, and in the larger cap sector QLogic (QLGC) was down 44 cents.

Reviewing the 60 minute/hourly patterns, I view them as constructive and bullish. It looks likes a bottoming pattern to me, a head and shoulders of sorts may be forming. Today’s action went up through the moving averages, which are now flat, pulled back, tested and consolidated. A move up through Friday’s highs of 1495 on the NDX and 1190 of the S&P are the levels I’m looking for to confirm that we’ve turned the corner and a new rally is under way.

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.