Today the Fed announced another quarter percent raise in interest rates, and it created some volatility in the latter part of the session.  At the start of the session the indices opened firm, moved up a bit on Nasdaq, with the Dow and S&P trailing.  Then they went into a very long an d narrow sideways movement for several hours before the Fed announcement.

When the Fed announced the markets moved lower, held support, broke out sharply to the upside, failed to follow through and came down and retested the lows, managed to hold them, and in the very last 5 minutes or so, firmed up into the close.

That put the Dow back in the positive column by just 5 points.  The S&P closed down 1, the Nasdaq 100 was up 4, and the Composite was up about 4 1/2.

The technicals were very mixed, slightly lower on advance-declines on both exchanges, by less than 100 issues on new York and about 120 issues on Nasdaq.

Up/down volume was positive on Nasdaq, negative on New York.  Total volume on Nasdaq was about 1.8 billion, with a ratio of 11 to 7 on up/down volume.  New York volume was about 1.65 billion, with about an 8 to 7 negative plurality.

The indices ended mixed and narrow, and nothing was resolved today, although we did do some testing of support as well as probing of resistance.

TheTechTrader.com board was very narrowly changed.  One stock we just started following, Stamps.com (STMP), was up nearly 2 points today, Other than that, only CryptoLogic (CRYP) was up nearly a point, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) was up 84 cents.

Forward Industries (FORD) advanced 53 cents, Immunogen (IMGN) 51 cents, and King Pharmaceuticals (KG) up 68 cents, along with Broadcom (BRCM) up 52 cents.

On the downside, QLogic (QLGC) lost 76 cents, but most other stocks on my board were very narrowly changed, either up or down.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the patterns of the last couple weeks are certainly consolidations and could be base patterns.  But until they break either way, we have to consider the trend still in force. 

Unfortunately, the intermediate trend since the February highs are still intact to the downside, and the level I'll be watching is today's high around 1437 NDX and beyond that the 1448-50 zone as key overhead resistance.

On the S&P 500 key overhead resistance was tested today around the 1166-67 zone, and beyond that we'll be keeping our eyes on the 1172-75 area.

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.