The markets were down in the morning, up in the afternoon and ended positive on the day. 

The day started out with a move down that tested yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s late afternoon lows.  They bounced, couldnââ,¬â"¢t get through the declining moving averages or yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s late snapback highs, and then made lower lows in the morning just before lunch hour, at which point they reached the lows for the session. 

The market staged a move that lasted until lunch hour.  They consolidated during lunch hour and partially into the early afternoon, and then had a very strong surge at that point, taking out some minor layers of resistance, testing key overhead resistance at the 7-week declining tops line on the S&P as well as the moving averages on the hourly charts.  The NDX trailed at that point and they both failed to get through resistance.  The indices backed and filled during the last hour and then thrust in the last few minutes, closing near the highs for the day going away.

Net on the day the Dow as up 49, the S&P 500 up 6.80, and the Nasdaq 100 11 1/2, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 2 1/2, about 6 points off the low for the day but still down on the session.

The technicals were positive by less than 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York and only 15 to 14 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 9 to 5 positive on both exchanges on volume of about 1.6 billion on Nasdaq and 1.55 billion on New York.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed, with a couple point-plus losers and one point-plus gainer.  That was IFN, the India Fund ATF, which was up 2.45 on more than 1 million shares.  Qualcomm (QCOM) was up 78 cents, Omni Energy (OMNI) up 62 cents, Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) 38 cents, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 32 cents.

On the downside, point-plus leaders were Baidu.com (BIDU) down 1.91, Apple Computer (AAPL) 1.41, and Travelzoo (TZOO)  1.01.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, as indicated the indices snapped back this afternoon and retested resistance but failed to get through.  With tomorrowââ,¬â"¢s fed announcement Iââ,¬â"¢m looking for a fairly narrow morning and perhaps a volatile afternoon after the Fed announces.

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.