The markets edged higher today.  But all the progress was made in the morning, and the afternoon was spent giving it back.  The day started out with a hesitation move.   They dipped lower, quickly reversed early in the morning, and then had a two-step rally that took Nasdaq to initial resistance.  Despite that move the S&P 500 barely confirmed, but both indices failed at the 5-day declining tops lines, and the rest of the day was spent moving down in a 5-wave move.  In the last half hour or so the indices bounced back and got back into the plus column.

Net on the day, the Dow was up just 7.68, the S&P 500 up just 1, and the Nasdaq 100, which was the strongest index today, was up 7.32.  The SOX Semiconductor Index was up 1.52.

The technicals were slightly negative on New York and positive on Nasdaq.  Advance-declines were lower by 350 issues on New York but positive by 600 issues, or about 3 to 2, on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 6 to 5 positive on New York, and 11 to 4 positive on Nasdaq.  Total volume was nearly 1 1/4 billion on New York and just 1 1/2 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed.  There were some outstanding gainers today.  Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (ASPV) closed at 27.95, up 4.41 on 1 2/3 million shares.  DXP Enterprises (DXPE), one of our recent portfolio positions, snapped back 2.64 from recent losses.  Ceradyne (CRDN) was up another 2.74 after yesterday's strong gain.  Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) snapped back 1.92 on more than 3 million. 

Other gainers of note, Neoware Systems (NWRE) was up 93 cents, Evergreen Solar (ESLR) 54 cents, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) 48 cents, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) 37 cents, and PW Eagle (PWEI) snapped back 82 cents today.  Sierra Wireless (SWIR) was also up 36 cents.

On the downside, there were fractional losses across the board.  OraLabs (OLAB) gave back 48 cents, Optelecom-NKF (OPTC) 89 cents, and Nitches (NICH) 57 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the short-term downtrend was broken, but the rally failed at declining tops and moving average resistance, as well as lateral price resistance. So we have some formidable resistance just above and we'll see how the market reacts after the holiday.

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.