The indices ended very narrowly mixed today after some early morning weakness and mid-day strength.  They sold off in the last half hour or so and came back near the flat line.

The day started out with a move down that snapped back to resistance and failed, and then a sharp sell-off that held the three-day trendline.  As a result, they rallied for the next several hours and made nominal new highs, but failed at 1800 three times on the Nasdaq 100.  The S&P 500 did make steady new afternoon highs, but fell short of its 2006 highs set on the 22nd.

They sold off late in the session to end up very narrowly mixed on the session.

Net on the day the Dow was down about 4 Ã,½, the S&P 500 was up a little more than 1, and the Nasdaq 100 was down about 1 Ã,½.  The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 2.60 today and kept Nasdaq from bigger losses.

The technicals were positive, however, on the New York Stock Exchange by 5 to 3 on advance-decline and a little less than 2 to 1 on up/down volume.  Total volume on New York was more than 1.8 billion.  Nasdaq traded about 2 billion shares and had an 11 to 9 positive ratio on up/down volume, with an 8 to 7 positive ratio on advance-declines.

TheTechTrader.com board was very narrowly mixed today.  Only one stock gained as much as a point and only one lost as much as a point.  The leading gainer was the GLD gold ETF, up 1.24, on the $9 gain in gold today.  Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) lost 1.

Other than that, Durect Corp. (DRRX) gained 88 cents on nearly 9 million shares on positive drug news but closed nearly a point off its high. Chindex (CHDX) gained 48 cents and American Oriental Bioengineering (AOB) 58 cents, and Fuel Tech (FTEK) 77 cents and MFRI Inc. (MFRI) 88 cents.  ViroPharma (VPHM) also added 81 cents and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) 37 cents.

Other losses of note, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) was down 24 cents, Dynavax (DVAX) 40 cents, and NVE Corp. (NVEC) 53 cents, along with Trio-Tech (TRT) down 45 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices extended the rally today, but the late pullback brought them back to near flat on the session.  TheTechTrader.com is closed tomorrow for a three-day business conference, and weââ,¬â"¢ll be back again on Monday. 

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.