We had an up-day, but the underlying technicals didn't really confirm the positive day and left a lot to be desired. 

The day started out with a gap-down.  The indices got an important retest of last week's lows and bounced for the rest of the day.  Particularly during the morning session and into the early afternoon, the indices stair-stepped back up in a multi-step advance that took them right back to key resistance at the 1429-30 area on the NDX and the 1159-60 zone on the S&P.  Those turned out to be the session highs.  The rest of the day the indices meandered sideways to slightly lower.

A review of the technicals reveals fairly weak underpinnings today.  Despite the fact that the Dow was up 47.67 and the S&P 4.65, advance-declines on New York were only 70 issues more positive.  Up/down volume was just barely ahead.  Total volume was towards the light side with 1.3 billion traded on New York.

Nasdaq traded about 1.5 billion with a narrow plurality to the downside.  There were just 270 more declining than advancing issues, despite the fact that Nasdaq was up 3.33 on the 100 and 2.99 on the Composite, and the SOX was off less than a point today but 4 points off the session highs.

So it was a mixed to negative day on the technicals, but a positive day on the indices, and that does not speak well of the market's underpinnings.

As a result, we sold out of our day-trading positions near the session highs.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed except for a couple issues.  In particular, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) was smacked for 2.43, closing near a six-day low.  Energy stocks Georesources (GEOI) and Able Energy (ABLE) were down 50 cents and 46 cents, respectively. 

Other stocks of note, JAMDAT Mobile (JMDT) backed off 61 cents and QLogic (QLGC) 62 cents.  Broadcom (BRCM) was off 30 cents.

On the plus side, the alternative energy sector was strong today, with DayStar Technologies (DSTI) up 87 cents and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 63 cents.  W.R. Grace (GRA) snapped back 96 cents, and Juniper Networks (JNPR) was up 54 cents.  There was not much else to speak of.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the best I can say about today is that we snapped back off of support but failed at resistance and meandered for the rest of the session.

It's going to be very important that the market holds these levels and advances, because any pullback from here could retest the lows or worse, and perhaps even eventually break the lows of the last two weeks.

So far the market is attempting to base in this area.  But it did the same in mid-to-late March and failed as well, so we'll have to see where it goes.

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.