The indices had three distinct parts of the session on Friday and ended mixed on the day.

The day started out with a big gap-up to new rally highs on both the NDX and S&P 500.  An immediate sharp sell-off ensued, followed by a rebound which failed to take out the highs.  They then rolled over to new lows, testing key short-term support at 1600 NDX and 1280 S&P.  That level held until lunch hour.

The rest of the day was spent stair-stepping back up in a five-wave advance, and net on the day the Dow closed down 12.41, but that was some 52 points off the low.   The S&P 500 was up 2.51, some 8 points off the low, and the Nasdaq 100 closed 13 points off the low but still ending down 3.67 on the day.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell 0.71 today and closed mid-range.

The technicals on New York and Nasdaq were vastly different, with advance-declines 2 to 1 positive on the NYSE and only 135 issues positive on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 3 to 2 positive on New York but 11 to 7 negative on Nasdaq, on total volume of more than 1.5 billion on New York and about 1.9 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, with large-cap sector fractionally lower.  Among the gainers, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) had a stellar day, snapping back with a vengeance, up more than 5 points on more than 5 1/3 million shares after a couple of upgrades.

DXP Enterprises (DXPE) was up another 2.69, and MED was up 1.79 today, along with ENCY 1.50.

Other advances of note, PW Eagle (PWEI) gained 83 cents to a four-week high.  Fuel Tech (FTEK) took out a three-week resistance level and closed up 81 cents on more than 1/2 million shares.

On the downside, the loss leader was Rambus (RMBS), down 1.18 on more than 12 million.  51job, Inc. (JOBS) gave back 38 cents, Rediff.com India (REDF) 39 cents, and Sierra Wireless (SWIR) 57 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, we had a key breakout this morning out of the week-long base patterns, and the mid-day pullback successfully tested support.  But the afternoon rally was more corrective-looking than thrusting and we'll have to see if we can get an extension of the rally on Monday and whether support does indeed hold.

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.