The indices had a roller-caster ride but ended positive on the session, except for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which was down most of the day and was a continual drag on the Nasdaq 100.

The day started out with a move down, followed by a sharp bounce that failed pretty quickly, and then another sharp decline that took them to new pullback lows, reaching the bottom of the 2-day down-channel.  At that point they had a very sharp rally that took them all the way back to the top of the channel and to test key resistance at around 1800 NDX and about 1414 on the S&P 500, near yesterday afternoonââ,¬â"¢s rally highs.

The rest of the afternoon was spent meandering lower, interrupted only by a rally try with about an hour to go that failed, and they rolled over in the last hour. However, the pullback only took back about half the gains from the morning rally.

So, net on the day the Dow was up 29, the S&P 500 up 2 1/2, and the NDX 8 3/4. The SOXX, as indicated earlier, was down 3.18.

Despite the gains in the S&P and Dow, the NYSE advance-declines were actually lower today by 75 issues.   However, up/down volume was 7 to 6 positive on New York, with a little less than 1 1/3 billion traded.  Nasdaq traded 1 Ã,¾ billion with about a 2 to 1 positive ratio on up/down volume. Nasdaq advance/declines were flat .

TheTechTrader.com board was very narrowly mixed.  Only two stocks advanced or declined as much as a point.  The leading gainer was NVE Corp. (NVEC), one of our portfolio positions, up 1.87.  Among other portfolio positions, ISIS Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) jumped 1.03 on 5 Ã,½ million shares, and Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN), a Chinese hotelier, gained 78 cents. 

Among other stocks, low-priced Amex biotech HTI advanced 69 cents and AOB 37 cents.  Portfolio position China GrenTech (GRRF) was up 47 cents, and Alos Therapeutics (ALTH), another portfolio position, gained 23 cents. 

On the downside, MFRI Inc. (MFRI) gave back 94 cents from yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s big gain, and the GLD gold ETF tracking stock fell 66 cents on the drop in the gold today.  Chindex (CHDX) lost 57 cents and Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) 65 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices ran up to key short-term resistance and failed, and backed off in the afternoon, so the question is still in doubt as to direction.  But the overall patterns have not been violated, and the trend is still up intermediate-term with the short-term in doubt.

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.