The indices had a narrowly mixed day today. There was some volatility in the morning when the indices started with a move down. Then they had a strong thrust to the upside on a reversal, taking the NDX to new rally highs, but the S&P did not cooperate. At that point they sold back off and pretty vacillated for the next three to four hours. The indices meandered in a trading range, attempting to break out over 1800 NDX and 1448 S&P on two or three occasion without much success. With a little more than an hour to go the indices poked their heads above resistance, taking the S&P to over 1449, which is near the high it reached on Friday, making just fractional nominal new highs. But the NDX did not confirm, and they rolled over the last hour, bringing them back into the negative column.

The Dow managed to gain 8 Ã,¼, but the S&P 500 was down 1.40 and the NDX down 2.74. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 0.63.

The technicals were 18 to 15 negative on advance-declines on New York and about 17 to 13 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was just a tad lower on New York,with a little more than 1.4 billion traded. Nasdaq traded more than 1.8 billion, and had pretty much an equal amount of advancing and declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed with several outstanding gainers. By far the leader today was U.S. Global Investors (GROW), which snapped back 5.53, breaking out of its 30-point downtrend of the last month. Other gainers of note, Rambus (RMBS) on a positive court ruling was up 4.58 to 23 Ã,½ on nearly 40 million shares.

Anadigics (ANAD), one of our Charts of the Week, gapped at the opening and was up 1.58 today on 11 Ã,½ million. NovaTel (NVTL) traded 7.8 million today and was up 1.27.

Other gainers, Sigma Designs (SIGM) was up 64 cents, Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS) up 50 cents, and Chindex (CHDX) up 62 cents.

On the downside, Rochester Medical (ROCM), which had run up hard lately, got some profit taking and dropped 1.20 today. Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) was down 1.25, Syntax-Brillian (BRLC) dropped 49 cents, and Research Frontiers (REFR) down 64 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices vacillated early in the morning, consolidated mid-day, tried to rally, and could not follow-through, and backed off at the end of the day. So we remain in a neutral pattern and in a narrowing one on the NDX over the last three sessions with the SPX consolidating between the 1444 and 1450 zones over the last 2 sessions.

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.