The indices ended up with a very narrowly lower session, but had some morning and afternoon action.

In the morning the indices opened strong to new rally highs on the NDX but failed to so on the S&P.  They sold off, retested support, bounced and on several occasions could not get through either resistance or support went basically sideways for several hours.  In the afternoon the rally attempt finally took out the mid-day highs, touching new session highs on the S&P but not so on the NDX, and in the last half-hour rolled over and went back into the negative column.

Net on the day the Dow was down just 1.68, the S&P 500 0.45, and the Nasdaq 100 down 2.22, mostly due to the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) being down 4.58.

However, technicals for the most part remained on the positive side, by 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York but only positive by 140 issues on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was about 7 to 5 Ã,½ positive on New York on total volume there of just under 1.3 billion. Nasdaq traded about 1 2/3 billion, and had a 3 to 2 negative plurality on volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly very narrowly mixed.  Only one stock was up or down as much as a point, and that was NVE Corp. (NVEC) up 1.04.  Apple Computer (AAPL) gained 89 cents, Escala Group (ESCL) up 41 cents, Fuel Tech (FTEK) 38 cents, Neurocrine Bioscience (NBIX) 66 cents, OraLabs (OLAB) 43 cents, and POZN up 60 cents.

On the downside, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) gave back 90 cents, Broadcom (BRCM) 73 cents, PW Eagle (PWEI) 86 cents, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) 53 cents, but as you can see fairly narrow movement today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, todayââ,¬â"¢s action did very little to change the overall look of the patterns, which basically are in two-day sideways consolidations above their moving averages on the hourly charts and above their price support.

So it augurs well for future price improvement, but itââ,¬â"¢s going to be interesting what happens after Labor Day weekend when everyoneââ,¬â"¢s back on their trading desks.  I expect tomorrow will be as narrow if not worse leading up to the Labor Day.  TheTechTrader is closed and weââ,¬â"¢ll speak to you on Tuesday.

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.