We had a very interesting session today.  The indices opened with a gap down, following up on the decline of the last few days.  But at that point they had completed a 5-wave decline.  They stabilized early in the morning and then started an intraday 5-wave advance that was very sharp, particularly in the morning part of the session, reaching key overhead resistance near 1645-47 on the NDX and the 1338 area on the S&P 500.  They backed and filled for two hours, retesting support and resistance in a narrow range, vacillating in what looked like a high-level consolidation.  But after the fifth attempt to breakout failed, they rolled over in the last half hour.

Net on the day the Dow was still up 57 points at 11,727, a new closing high.  It reached as high as 11,758.95, which is a new all-time intraday high on the Dow.  The S&P 500 advanced 2.97 and the Nasdaq 100 up 7 1/2, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was weak all session, down 5 on the day and obviously keeping Nasdaq from having a much bigger session.

Technicals were mixed for most of the session, ending 17 to 16 positive on New York and about 16 to 13 negative on Nasdaq on advance-declines.  Up/down volume was slightly to the downside on New York and slightly to the plus side on Nasdaq, by 10 to 9, with nearly 1.95 billion traded.  New York traded about 1.7 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed.  There were some outstanding gainers today.  The leader by far was Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR), which broke out of a 5-day flag after last weekââ,¬â"¢s big gap up and run.  The stock extended its rally today, surging in the afternoon and particularly near the end of the day when it gained 1.50 in just the last 12 minutes of trading, closing up 2.80 on nearly 8 million shares.

The only other point-plus gainer on my board today was Akamai (AKAM), which went to a new 6-year high today, closing up 1.32 at 51.15.

Other stocks of note, PW Eagle (PWEI) was up 80 cents, Qualcomm (QCOM) 74 cents and Versant (VSNT) in the low-priced sector up 82 cents today.

On the downside, Marvel (MRVL) lost 2.29 on a downgrade and negative earnings report.  That affected Broadcom (BRCM), which lost 94 cents.   Baidu.com (BIDU) fell nearly 3 points today, and BITS gave back 1.02.

Apple Computer (AAPL) was down 78 cents, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) 70 cents, and DXP Enterprises (DXPE) 1.08. U.S. Global Investors (GROW) gave back 1.96 and went to a multi-week low, testing its 1-year major uptrend line. ViroPharma (VPHM) lost 38 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices tried on several occasions to break out of key resistance after snapping back from 2-day losses and then this morningââ,¬â"¢s spillover loss, and were unable to do so.  So the direction is still in doubt here.

Although the mid-day rally was impressive from a price standpoint, I didnââ,¬â"¢t see a lot of breadth in participation, and the picture is still a little hazy here.

Key resistance overhead at 1338-39 on the S&P 500 and 1645-47 on the NDX will be watched tomorrow to see if they can in fact breakout.  Key support now is at 1327 S&P and 1623 NDX.

Those are the levels weââ,¬â"¢ll be watching tomorrow.

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.