The market finished firm on the blue chips and slightly negative on Nasdaq to end up with a mixed performance on the session.

The day started out with a slight firming and then a pullback/retest that was successful.  Then they rallied & reached the highs for the day on a short burst around mid-morning.  Upon the next rally try the S&P 500 and Dow made higher highs, but the NDX failed to confirm, and then they rolled over just before lunch hour, reaching their lows for the morning before a slow, tedious snapback, corrective-type move brought them back to the declining moving averages and trendlines.  There they failed once again only to make lower lows in the afternoon before a last-hour similar snapback brought them off the lows for the day.

Net on the day, the Dow managed to gain 73 Ã,½ and the S&P 500 more than 3, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 2.40 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) down 1.12.

Technicals were stronger on the NYSE where advance-declines were 5 to 3 positive and up/down volume a little better than 4 to 3 positive.  Total volume there was less than 1.4 billion.

Nasdaq advance-declines were higher by only 167 issues, and up/down volume was 8 to 7 negative on total volume there of under 1.6 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board  was mostly narrowly mixed but there were some outstanding gainers and losers.  On the plus side, Baidu.com (BIDU) was up 3.55 on nearly 2.9 million. At one point it was up more than 5.  Travelzoo (TZOO)  gained 2.14 on more than 3 million, extending yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s gains.  Low-priced Escala Group (ESCL) gained nearly 2 points on 4.2 million shares.  It was the Nasdaq percent gain leader today, up 42%.

Other stocks of note, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) gained 1.02, PW Eagle (PWEI) 47 cents, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) snapped back 83 cents.  The IFN India ETF was up 66 cents, and the GLD gold tracking stock up 51 cents.

On the downside, Apple Computer (AAPL) lost 1.23, Simclar (SIMC) gave back 1.13, and Zevex (ZVXI) 81 cents.  Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) fell 61 cents, Micronetics (NOIZ) 52 cents, Broadcom (BRCM) 72 cents and DXP Enterprises (DXPE) 48 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the NDX continued to trail badly today, and the index charts show very different patterns, with the S&P and Dow looking a lot more bullish than the Nasdaq 100.

We find it hard to believe we can have a major rally without stronger participation from the NDX, so we remain cautious here and market still has something to prove.

With tomorrowââ,¬â"¢s employment news out, we could see some volatility.

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.