The indices stabilized today and pretty much meandered back and forth in a trading range for most of the session.  On 4-5 attempts they tried to break out to the upside and on 3 attempts tested the downside, but neither the bulls nor bears were able to win out today.

Net on the day the indices were fairly close to unchanged in what I'd call a mixed session.  Despite the fact that advance-declines were 3 to 2 positive on New York and a like number on up/down volume, the Dow was down 16 today, but the S&P 500 was up 3 1/3.  Nasdaq gained 4 3/4 on the Composite and 1.39 on the 100.  The SOX was up a little less than 1 percent, up 3.21.

The technicals on Nasdaq were flat on advance-declines and about 4 to 3 positive on up/down volume.  Total volume was about 1.7 billion on New York and about 1.8 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but there were some outstanding losers today.  BOOM continued its recent losses, down 1.90 to 22 1/4.  PACT, after a great earnings report this morning and an early gap-up and run to nearly 10 ¼, got hammered for 3 points down to 7.17 after guiding lower for the next quarter.  It closed at 7.37, down 1.47.

Other stocks of note on the losing side, GEOI was down 48 cents, AIRT down 32 more cents, and MDKI down 37 cents.

On the plus side, ALVR on an upgrade was up 57 cents.  Some of the alternative energy stocks were ahead, with ENER up 14 cents and FCEL 25 cents.  CRYP gained 35 cents today.

GRA, one of this week's Charts of the Week, soared 82 cents on asbestos news.  WGAT, another of our Charts of the Week, held strong all day, up 32 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, despite the heavy losses of last week and the oversold condition, the market failed to rally off the lows and pretty much moved sideways in what looks like potentially a bearish consolidation before lower levels are achieved.

But they still have a chance to turn this into a base pattern, and we'll have to see which way it resolves over the next day or two.

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.