The indices had an up session on Friday but looked more corrective, and the move up came on what I would call less than impressive breadth.  The day started out with a move up at from get-go, a quick pullback retest of the lows was successful and then they rallied mid-morning, but not too impressively. They then backed off into the lunch hour and started to firm up, and continued to do so into the early afternoon.  But when they reached the declining tops line and just underneath key overhead resistance the indices backed and filled into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 60.67, the S&P 500 up just under 5, and the Nasdaq 100 up nearly 10.  The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which had been down earlier in the session, closed up 3.13, which helped Nasdaq stay positive today.

Technicals were 5 to 3 positive on advance-declines on New York, but just 267 issues positive on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 7 to 5 positive on New York, with about 1 Ã,¼ billion traded.  Nasdaq traded a little over 1 Ã,½ billion with about a 9 to 5 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed for the most part, but there were some outstanding issues.

Previous Chart of the Week and portfolio holding U.S. Global Investors (GROW) came out with a fantastic earnings report and exploded for 6 points on the opening gap, reaching as high as 34, just above our trading target.  It then came down hard for the rest of the session, closing at 30.83, still up 2.81 on the session, on 5 million shares.

Baidu.com (BIDU) advanced 1.64 on rumors of a takeover by Yahoo (YHOO), and Akamai (AKAM) was up 1.74, closing less than a point off the multi-year highs.  Other stocks of note, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) was up 79 cents, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) up 60 cents.

On the downside, there were just fractional losses on my board.  Fuel Tech (FTEK) gave back 81 cents.  Gigamedia (GIGM) reversed after an early gain and closed down 82 cents.  DXP Enterprises (DXPE) was off 65 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the move down we had at mid-week was halted by yesterday morning and they backed and filled in a corrective-looking manner over the last couple days, which could lead to further downside early next week.  Thatââ,¬â"¢s what weââ,¬â"¢re expecting, but weââ,¬â"¢ll have to see where the indices take us and whether they break the current two-day consolidation patterns to the downside, or take out overhead resistance.

Levels weââ,¬â"¢ll be watching next week are 1580-82 on the NDX on the resistance side, followed by 1592-93.  Support is at the 1565 area and then 1560.  S&P resistance is at near 1302 and 1306.  Support is at 1294 and 1292.

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.