We had a fairly narrow session -- down in the morning, up in the afternoon. The day started off with a sell-off at the get-go. They bounced around, made lower lows on the S&P but did not do so on the NDX, and they stabilized for a bit longer and started a rally just before the lunch hour that lasted until the early afternoon. A mid-afternoon pullback tested support and trendlines successfully. They bounced again with about an hour to go, setting new session highs but not taking out key resistance, and then sold off again until the last 15 min when they bounced back a bit.

Net on the day most of the indices were off, with the Dow down 29 Ã,¼ and the S&P 500 off 1.71. The NDX was off just 0.40, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 2.33.

The technicals were marginally negative. Advance-declines were about 17 to 15 negative on New York and negative by only 68 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 8 to 7 negative on New York, with just under 1.6 billion traded, and about 9 to 8 negative on Nasdaq with about 1.85 billion traded.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed for the most part, though there were some outstanding issues. A stock we traded a couple times today, NextStage Medical (NXTM) gapped up on major news of a deal with Davita (DVA). The stock ran hard in the morning, was up about 5 points at its high, but sold off at the end of the day and closed up 3.60 on the session, with nearly 8 million shares traded .

Chinese hotelier Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) once again showing tremendous relative strength, closed at 48.26, up 2.53, a new all time high. Exide Technologies (XIDE) at 8.68 was up 1.38 on 4.8 million. Old favorite Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) came to life today, jumping 1.25. It actually at one point was up nearly 2 Ã,½, breaking out to a new all-time high. The US Oil Trust (USO) ETF jumped 1.52 on the sharp move-up in the price of oil, as oil neared $60 a barrel today.

Other stocks of note, CDC Corp. (CHINA) traded up near 11 to a new 3-year high, and closed near the highs for the day going away.

Mamma.com (MAMA) jumped early but still backed off, still closing up 44 cents on 6 1/3 million, Rambus (RMBS) had a strong session but gave back a portion of its gains, closing up 86 cents on nearly l4 million shares.

Charts of the Week Anadigics (ANAD) advanced 35 cents and Digimarc(DMRC) 33 cents and Halozyme Therapeutics (HTI) advanced 16 cents on nearly 1 million.

On the downside, the loss leader was Syntax-Brillian (BRLC), which got hammered, came back a bit but still closed down 1.38, a big percentage loss on more than 11 million shares. U.S. Global Investors (GROW) backed off 95 cents and most other losing stocks were off just small fractions.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices severely tested short-term support this morning, held, and spent the rest of the day inching back up, but not in a very convincing or thrusting manner. So we’ll see what that results in over the next day or two. But the pattern that’s forming on the S&P is looking a little toppy.

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.