The indices were mixed at the close, but the majority of late morning and afternoon was spent moving lower.  After a nice start where the indices gapped up, consolidated and then went to secondary highs just before the lunch hour and made nominal new 2-week highs on the NDX, the S&P did not follow through and fell right at resistance at 1189 and change.  That level has thwarted the last two major rallies in the S&P, so we now have a triple top of sorts at around 1189-90 on the S&P that we'll have to contend with.

In any case, at that point the indices came down and sold off fairly steadily, interrupted by a mid-afternoon rally attempt that failed at resistance.

Net on the day the Dow was up 27 1/2 and the S&P up 2 2/3, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 3 and the Composite was nearly unchanged at 1999, down 0.18.  The SOX Index was up less than a point, 6 points off the earlier highs, so it gave back almost all of its gains before the day was over.

Technicals were still positive 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York and 16 to 14 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was less than 4 to 3 positive on New York.  Total volume was a little lighter, under 1.4 billion traded.  Nasdaq, however, traded 1 2/3 billion, with about a 3 to 2 negative advantage on up/down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, with a couple outstanding gainers as well as losers.  On the plus side, FORD continued to ramp up as it has done for the last couple weeks.  It hit a new all-time highs today at 16.88 before backing off to 16.45, but it was still up 1.49 on 2.7 million shares, perhaps some climactic-type action there. 

MDRX, one of our Charts of the Week stocks, was up 54 cents, and CRYP advanced nearly a point.

On the downside, ENER got hit in the afternoon and dropped 1.11, BOOM backed off 92 cents, and most all other changes were just fractional across the board on our watchlist today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices, as I said, failed at resistance today and backed off, which shouldn't be a surprise.  The key is going to be if they can hold the various levels of support, one of which was tested late in the day today at the 1478-80 zone on the NDX.

The S&P support is beneath here at around 1179-80, and we'll see if they can hold that and whether this entire action of the last two weeks turns out to have been a basing pattern or a consolidation pattern.

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.