The indices had two very distinct parts of the session: down in the morning, up in the afternoon, and closed near the flat line.

The day started out with a slight bump to the upside. The S&P 500 tagged the 1450 area early on for a new 6-year high, but the NDX could not even get through 1800 and sold off very sharply, taking out a couple layers of support. They stabilized late morning and through lunch hour, and then they started to rally, getting a three-wave move up that got up to secondary resistance ,but backed off in the last half hour or so.

The Dow was up just 4.57 and the S&P 500 up just 1.01, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 2.33 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) 2.51.

However, the technicals were positive much more so on the NYSE, where advance-declines were 21 to 12 positive. Nasdaq was just 16 to 13 positive. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York with a total volume of 1.4 billion traded. However, Nasdaq traded over 2 billion and had an 11 to 9 negative plurality on declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, with several point-plus gainers today. Old favorite Nuance Communications (NUAN) exploded, gapped up, ran hard all day, and closed up 2.08 to 13.42 on 23 million shares.

U.S. Global Investors (GROW) continued its sharp snapback and got up to as high as 52 Ã,½, before closing just over 51, up 2.14 today. Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) snapped back 1.35, Chindex (CHDX) 1.01, and Research Frontiers (REFR) up another 1.63 today on nearly 1 million shares.

Force Protection(FRPT) was up 1.05 to 17.91, and Alos Therapeutics (ALTH) broke out and jumped 81 cents today on more than 1.1 million. Portfolio position Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) was up 70 cents, Chart of the Week ,Anadigics (ANAD) up 49 cents. Chinadotcom surged in the morning and held all session, up 52 cents on 6 1/3 million. HOKU advanced 45 cents, portfolio position Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH) up 35 cents, and portfolio position MediaLink (MDLK) broke out and jumped 59 cents today.

Low-priced biotech Nymox (NYMX) was up 73 cents to 5.39 on 1 Ã,¼ million. Old favorite Parlux Fragrances (PARL) jumped 91 cents more than 5 million shares.

On the downside, there were just small fractional losses, except for Rochester Medical (ROCM), which gave back 85 cents today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, despite a sharp break this morning, there was no downside follow-through. And the S&P 500, in particular, which held price and 40-day rising moving average support on the hourly charts , bounced off of them in afternoon. The NDX bounced sharply as well, coming back to moving average resistance on its 60-minute charts.

So, the bulls and bears need to make a decision tomorrow as to which direction they want to take this market.

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.