The markets did have another up-day, but they gave back a chunk of their early morning gains after lunch and then snapped back at the end of the day to recover into positive territory. 

The day started out with another follow-up rally, which lasted throughout the morning and into the lunch hour, and in the afternoon they started rolling over and sold off very sharply, taking 20 points off the NDX and about 7 off the S&P in about an hour. Over the last 90 minutes or so they snapped back and managed to close in positive territory.

The Dow was up 7.84, about 38 points off the high for the day.  The S&P 500 was up a little more than 2 and about 3 Ã,½ points off the high.  The Nasdaq 100 up 3 Ã,½, some 11 points off the high, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) closed up 2 Ã,½, about 6 points off the high, and that pressured Nasdaq in the afternoon.

The technicals narrowed dramatically during the pullback, Advance-declines were just 17 to 15 positive on New York and about 17 to 12 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 8 to 7 positive with more than 1 Ã,½ billion traded on New York and about 11 to 7 positive, with about just under 1.9 billion traded on Nasdaq. 

TheTechTrader.com board  was mostly higher, but somewhat mixed as a result of the afternoon pare-back.  Outstanding issues included Baidu.com (BIDU) up 2.91, and portfolio positions NVE Corp. (NVEC) up 2.85 and PW Eagle (PWEI) up 1.93, SIGM broke out above 10 and made a key move on heavy volume and closed up 1.12 to 11.03. 

Travelzoo (TZOO)  advanced 1.44.  Fuel Tech (FTEK), another portfolio position, was up 1.21, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 1.27.

On the downside, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) was a non-participant today and lost 1.35. The GLD gold tracking stock dropped 1.46 on the sharp price pullback in gold.

Some market big names had a weak day today, with Qualcomm (QCOM) down 63 cents, Broadcom (BRCM) 33 cents, and Apple Computer (AAPL) 39 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the markets thrust early, extended their rally, and got up just underneath the June highs on the Nasdaq 100 before backing off in the afternoon.  The S&P took out the June and July resistance level about the 1290-92 zone and rallied above 1300 briefly before backing off, closing at 1297 Ã,½. 

So, the S&P has made a nominal breakout, but the Nasdaq 100 has not.  With the indices overbought Iââ,¬â"¢m looking for a pullback/consolidation over the next day or two, which would be healthy for the markets.

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.