The indices began trading with a strong start this morning, slightly taking out resistance but failing to follow through.  Then they meandered sideways for several hours in a consolidation pattern.  When a rally failed to materialize out of what appeared to be bullish flag patterns, they rolled over during the lunch hour and accelerated after lunch hour was over into the mid-afternoon, when they reached a temporary bottom.  They did bounce on a couple occasions but failed to get back up through price and moving average resistance and rolled over in the last 15-20 minutes to close near the session lows and put the indices in the negative column at the close.

Net on the day the Dow was down just 7 Ã,½, but at one point today approached 12,500, a new all-time high.  The S&P 500, reaching as high as 1429 earlier, closed at 1423 Ã,½, down 2. The Nasdaq 100 gave back 18 points off its high and closed down more than 7 points.  Only the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), up 3.18, was on the plus side today on my board.

Technicals remained positive because of the morning strength, but the margins narrowed quite a bit during the afternoon pullback.  Advance-declines were positive by about 17 Ã,½ to 15 on New York and by about 16 to 13 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 7 to 6 positive on New York and 9 to 7 positive on Nasdaq.  Total volume was a little more than 1 1/3 billion on New York, and about 1 2/3 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was active and busy with several very strong stocks today.  Portfolio position Gmarket (GMKT) continued its advance after Cramerââ,¬â"¢s recommendation,  jumping another 2.46 today on 5.2 million shares, although that was nearly 2 points off the earlier session high, as it finally did succumb to some afternoon profit-taking

Escala (ESCL), which has had a tremendous run of late, exploded again this morning and ran to as high as 13.30, at which point it was up 4 Ã,½ points.  But it gave back a larg chunk of it, closing up 1.92 at 10.53 on nearly 29 million shares.  Mamma.com (MAMA) ran in the morning, consolidated mid-day, and exploded late in the session, closing up 1.83 on 28.7 million, at 7.31.

Low-priced SIGA Technologies (SIGA) advanced 2.23 on 16 Ã,½ million shares, a gain of 80 percent after the FDA approved one of their drugs.

China stocks generally were strong today.  China Development Group (CTDC) gained 97 cents, Euro Tech Holdings (CLWT) 38 cents, American Oriential Bioengineering (AOB) 43 cents, and Aluminum Corp. China ACH 45 cents.  Global Sources (GSOL) gained 47 cents, and Chinese hotelier Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN), another portfolio holding of ours, 84 cents.

Portfolio position Simpletech (STEC) hit a new all-time high at 12 today, closing at 11.95, up 74 cents on nearly 3 million shares.  Fuel Tech (FTEK) was up 66 cents on a contract award.

On the downside, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) gave back 52 cents despite an announcement of a contract award.  One laggard in the Chinese group was portfolio position China GrenTech (GRRF), which lost 38 cents today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the indices did manage to follow through slightly this morning on yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s late rally, but failed miserably in the afternoon, closing down below initial support on the Nasdaq 100 but holding it on the S&P.

So weââ,¬â"¢ll see if we get any downside follow-through tomorrow.  Key areas to watch are yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s lows around the 1766-67 zone on the NDX and the 1415-17 zone on the S&P 500 for support.

On the upside, NDX 1795 and S&P 1429 remain formidable resistance.

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.