The market had another up-session, but the indices hit their session highs mid-way through the afternoon and had a decent pullback towards the end of the day, closing at the afternoon lows but still up on the session.

The day started out with a strong move forward, then a consolidation lasting a couple hours, but very much looking like a bullish flag.  Sure enough they broke to the upside, flagged again, and had a third leg up, completing a five-wave intraday rally, with the NDX making a new 2006 high just under 1805 and the S&P pounding through 1400, getting to as high as 1401.35, before the afternoon sell-off ensued.  That was triggered right around the time the FOMC minutes came out.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 33.70 to 12,251.  The S&P 500 at 1396.57 was up 3.35, and the Nasdaq 100, selling off about 11 points off its high, was still up 6.59 on the day and just under 1794, with a high of nearly 1805 today.

The technicals were positive, although they retrenched in the last hour as one would expected.  Advance-declines were positive by 5 to 3 on New York and by 3 to 2 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive on New York with 1.7 billion traded.  Nasdaq traded more than 2.1 billion and had about a 2 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but the outstanding stock of the day today was on the downside:  EFUT, which was a huge winner yesterday, gave back a whopping 13.71,  closing under 30 at 29.89.  That one reached as high as 48.63 yesterday.  Extreme volatility there with more than 5 million shares traded.

On the plus side, DAKT gapped up and ran hard, up nearly 7 points today on 4 Ã,¾ million.  U.S. Global Investors (GROW), one of our recent favorites, ran more than 4 today on 1 1/3 million shares, and closed at a new all-time high. 

Other stocks of note, Pacific Ethanol (PEIX), after announcing expected profitability for the coming quarter, leapt 1.74 on 5 Ã,½ million shares, closing at 19.08.  NVE Corp. (NVEC)  jumped 1.04. Chindex (CHDX) reached as high as 19.95 ,a new all time high, before closing at 19.26, up 85 cents.   BRLC gained 59 cents on 7 million shares, and American Oriental Bioengineering (AOB), one of our recent Charts of the Week, gapped up and ran hard today after announcing solid earnings and upward guidance.  It closed at 9.89, up 1.46 on 5 Ã,½ million shares on the American Stock Exchange. 

Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) jumped 73 cents, and Lumera (LMRA) snapped back 49 cents.

On the downside, China Medical (CMED) continued its sell-off after yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s strong opening, down 1.36; Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) backed off 82 cents; and ISIS fell another 48 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices ran steadily higher for most of the session until mid-afternoon when profit taking set in.  At the highs today the indices were not far off the channel high on the Nasdaq 100, but thereââ,¬â"¢s still some room for further improvement if todayââ,¬â"¢s intraday support does not give way early tomorrow morning.  Currently, support is at the 1792-93 zone on the NDX and at 1395-96 on the S&P.  Beneath that key support is at 1388 on the S&P, followed by secondary support at around 1379-80.

On the Nasdaq 100, support below todayââ,¬â"¢s levels comes in around 1780 and then around 1770-72.

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.