The markets had a mixed session on Tuesday with the blue chips higher and Nasdaq lower chiefly due to the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) index putting pressure on them all day.

The day started out with a gap down.  They bounced around in the morning and then had a late morning rally that reached resistance on the Nasdaq 100 near the 1715-16 area.  The S&P 500 ran to the highs of the last two days and the 2006 rally highs up around the 1326 1/2 area before a pullback ensued that lasted several hours into mid-afternoon.

Over the last couple hours they bounced back but failed to reach near the session highs.

Net on the day, the Dow was up over 55 and the S&P 500 up just 1/2 a point, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 4 and the SOXX down 5 1/3.

The technicals were better on New York than Nasdaq.  Advance-declines and up/down volume were nearly flat on New York, but advance-declines were a little better than 3 to 2 negative on Nasdaq and 2 to 1 negative on up/down volume.  New York total volume was less than 1.5 billion and Nasdaq's was just short of 1.9 billion

TheTechTrader.com board was about 50/50 mixed.  DXP Enterprises (DXPE) managed to gain 2.05, continuing its snapback from recent losses on 1.3 million traded.  PW Eagle (PWEI) snapped back 80 cents and Travelzoo (TZOO)  95 cents.

AVI Biopharma (AVII) in the Asia Flu group advanced 54 cents on nearly 5 1/2 million shares.

Most other stocks that were up gained only small fractions.

On the downside, Baidu.com (BIDU) dropped 2.29, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) 1.35, Fuel Tech (FTEK) 1.56 after their earnings release, 51job Inc. (JOBS) 1.11, and Zevex (ZVXI) 1.53.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the day was more of a consolidative-type session, as I had expected it may be before tomorrow's FOMC meeting and announcement.   We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

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.