The indices had a pullback/consolidation session and lost some ground today, but very similar action to yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s session when the indices were up in the morning and meandered for most of the rest of the day with an afternoon pullback. 

The day started out with a gap-down, a sharp quick pullback that tested support successfully on the S&P and took them out slightly on the NDX, and then a 3-wave rally took the indices back to declining tops line on the NDX and yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s double-top on the S&P, making just nominal new SPX highs for the year.  They pulled back starting in mid- afternoon and reached their lows for the afternoon with about a half hour to go, before bouncing in the last 30 minutes, but still closed down on the day.

The Dow was down 22 1/3, the S&P 500 a little less than 2 points, and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 5 Ã,¾.  But the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 1.71 today and key Nasdaq from a bigger loss.

The technicals were negative by 9 to 7 on advance-declines in New York and 8 to 7 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was about 4 to 3 negative in New York with total volume of over 1.5 billion.  Nasdaq traded over 1.8 billion, and had about a 5 to 4 negative plurality of declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed and narrowly so, with just two stocks up or down as much as a point.  The leading gainer today was Amex-listed Halozyme Therapeutics (HTI), which made an important announcement today about a drug deal and jumped 1.70, leading the American Stock Exchange with a gain of 60% today.

On the negative side, with gold down sharply today the GLD dropped 1.13.

Other than that, though, everything was fractionally mixed. Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH) gained 90 cents on 2.2 million, and Rediff.com India (REDF) jumped across $20 for the first time in several months and closed up 94 cents.

Among our portfolio positions, Simpletech (STEC) was another 47 cent gainer today, as was Trio-Tech (TRT), up 25 cents.  Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) was up 27 cents and Global Sources (GSOL) 37 cents.

On the downside, NVE Corp. (NVEC) gave back 63 cents,  Sigma Designs (SIGM) 42 cents, ISIS Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) 32 cents, and Gmarket (GMKT) 34 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they moved down, came back up, and move back down in the afternoon and ended negative on the session, but within the confines of a 2-day consolidation on the S&P and a 3-day consolidation on the Nasdaq 100.

Weââ,¬â"¢ll see if the corrective-looking consolidation results in more upside, and are watching short-term resistance levels of 1805 and 1811 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1415-16 on the S&P 500.  A move above those resistance levels would augur well for future price progress.

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.