The indices ended up on the day with the blue chips, in particular, as represented by the Dow and the S&P ending near the highs for the session.  But the indices certainly took an interesting route.

The morning started out with a move-up at the get-go that took the indices right up to the highs for the session.  For the next several hours the indices backed off, consolidated, and then took a sharp dip around mid-afternoon but held pretty quickly at secondary support and then rallied back up for the rest of the session.

The Dow closed up 59, the S&P up 5.3, the NDX up almost 3 points and the Composite 7.  The SOX was down about 1/3 of a point.

The technicals were pretty good on New York but flat on Nasdaq.  Advance-declines were 21 to 11 positive on New Yorkh but only 16-14 to Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive, with 1.5 billion traded on New York.  A similar amount was traded on Nasdaq, with up/down volume at about 4 to 3 positive.

TheTechTrader.com board was very narrowly mixed except for just a couple issues.  The star of the day was Elan Corp. (ELN), which continued its recent snapback after being crushed last month. It was up 1.20 on 44 million shares, a big percentage gain on heavy volume.

Other stocks on note on the plus side, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals (EYET) was up 43 cents, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) up 41 cents, and Dynamic Materials (BOOM) up 60 cents were the leaders.

On the downside, alternative energy stock DayStar Technologies (DSTI) backed off 34 cents, Forward Industries (FORD) was down 1 point, and Taser (TASR) was off 26 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, today's lows were right on the moving averages on the 60-minute charts, and the close was a solid one, particularly for the blue chips, with Nasdaq trailing a bit.

I'd like to see Nasdaq play catch-up and take out key resistance at 1430 and the S&P take out the highs of the last couple weeks up around the 1165 area.  Those are the levels we'll be watching.

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.