The market had a down day, but it was all over the place.  The session started off with a move down off the opening, an immediate spring higher that did not hold, and then a sharp plunge to the morning lows just around 10.  That was followed by an equally sharp rally that saw the indices pop back up but could not get back up to late yesterday afternoon's highs, and then for the next several hours they meandered in a tight range.  Just when it looked like it was breaking out, with about an hour to go the indices plunged , but they did manage to hold the early lows and then bounced again into the last half hour.

They closed down on the session, but just marginally. 

The Dow was down less than 10, the S&P down 2 1/2, and the Nasdaq 100 was down less than a point.  The SOX was the outstanding index today, up more than 3 points and certainly prevented Nasdaq from having a bigger loss.

Advance-declines were 17 to 15 negative on New York and 15 to 14 positive on Nasdaq.  Obviously a mixed picture.  Up/down volume was 7 to 5 negative on New York and 4 to 3 positive on Nasdaq.  Total volume was about 1 1/4 billion on New York and about 1.5 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed.  There were some outstanding issues both ways.  Low-priced Catuity (CTTY) was by far the star of the day.  It exploded off an opening at 4 to get as high as 22 1/2 today, a phenomenal performance.  A last two-hour pullback took it down to 16 1/2, but it was still up more than 12 1/2 points today on 8.6 million shares.  The company has only 712,000 shares floating, so that's a turnover of 12 times its shares in one day.

Other stocks of note, Juniper Networks (JNPR), one of our Watchboard positions, closed above 27 today, up 1.10 on more than 12 million shares, to a new six-month high.

Forward Industries (FORD) gained 24 cents, Kendle International (KNDL) 23 cents and aQuantive (AQNT) 26 cents.  In the large-cap sector, Broadcom (BRCM) advanced 76 cents and acted well all day.

On the downside, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) was down 1.57 and most other stocks were very narrowly fractionally changed.

Some highlights include Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) down 55, DayStar Technologies (DSTI) down 57 cents, Georesources (GEOI) down 62 cents, and SPIR down 73 cents. That was about 1.50 off the highs, so a big reversal there.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the indices severely tested support today -- two times -- and held.  There remain several negative divergences out there, and the trend is still in question. We should soon see what the bulls have left in their arsenal & whether it's enough to keep the trends moving higher.

Good trading!

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.