We had a narrowly mixed session today and if it wasnââ,¬â"¢t for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), Nasdaq would have been down even further today.

The day started out with a lower opening, then a strong move up to test resistance.  They moved higher during the morning in a shallow 5-wave stair-step advance until the early afternoon when the S&P made a nominal new 4-month high.  The NDX did not confirm, and when that occurred, they rolled over fairly sharply, with the NDX dropping from 1643 to 1625, and the S&P from near 1324 down to about 1318.  They bounced back in the last hour towards resistance, but failed to break out in what looked like bear-flag formations.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 5 Ã,¾, the S&P 500 up about 1 1/3, the Nasdaq 100 down 1/4, and the SOXX up 5.09, or more than 1 percent today.

The technicals were mixed.  Advance-declines were negative by 60 issues on New York and by 49 issues on Nasdaq, nearly flat.  Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York with a little less than 1 Ã,½ billion traded.  Nasdaq traded over 1.7 billion, and had a 10 to 7 positive plurality of advancing volume over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed, except for a few outstanding gainers today, led by NVE Corp. (NVEC)  touching a new 2006 high, closing at 38.43, up 3.64 on 1 Ã,¼ million.  Baidu.com (BIDU) advanced 1.22, and SMTS up 1.19.  Other stocks of note, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) gained 80 cents, Chart of the Week U.S. Global Investors (GROW) 87 cents, Rambus (RMBS) 74 cents, Sigma (SIGM) 53 cents and Simpletech (STEC)  53 cents.  Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) advanced 54 cents.

On the downside, Akamai (AKAM) gave back 74 cents, SXTS 72 cents, VSNT 44 cents, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) 38 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices bent but didnââ,¬â"¢t break today, tested key multi-session support and held.  The support levels weââ,¬â"¢ll be watching tomorrow are NDX 1625 and 1618.

On the S&P 500 theyââ,¬â"¢re 1318 and 1314.

On the upside, resistance is at 1644 on the NDX and 1325 S&P.

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.