The indices finally broke their string of up-days with a definitive down-day, starting with an opening gap down. The indices bounced at support but then had a negative morning, particularly on the Nasdaq 100, which dropped from the 1580 area down to around the 1502-03 zone, spent a couple hours trying to base, did have a snapback, retested successfully and made higher highs.

So they reversed the pullback intraday, but still ended negatively on the session, although the S&P made back about half its losses.

The Dow put on a good show, came back 43 points and closed down just 3.69 on the day. The S&P was down 3.30, the Nasdaq 100 down around 17 and the Composite down around 17 1/2. The SOX was down more than 1 percent, or 5.13 points, and closed right around 400 on the index.

Advance-declines were negative on both exchanges by 17 to 14 on New York and 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 negative on New York on volume of just over 1 billion, so lighter on the pullback, and Nasdaq was much lighter, under 1.5 billion, with about a 3 1/2 to 2 negative ratio on up/down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board had some outstanding issues. One of our recent Charts of the Week picks, World Poker Tour (WPTE), was up 3.86 to nearly 17 on over 1 million shares.

Other than that, Forward Industries (FORD) closed at 8.20, up a dollar. Dynamic Materials (BOOM) was up 59 cents, Multi-Fineline Electronix (MFLX) 33 cents, Neoware (NWRE) 46 cents, and Sigma (SIGM) up 40 cents.

On the downside, Broadcom (BRCM) was down nearly 1, Taser (TASR) 3/4 of a point, the SMH a quarter, and the QQQQs 43 cents. In the smaller-cap sector there were only fractional losses to speak of, other than Air T (AIRT) which dropped 3/4 of a point on a late sell-off

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, despite nominal breakouts of the down-channel yesterday, Nasdaq pulled back and retested that late in the session, but the S&P is holding up much better, and although it backed off formidable resistance yesterday at 1195, it held initial support around 1185 and bounced to close at 1190.

So we'll see if we can take out that key overhead formidable resistance in the SPX 1195-96 area, which if broken could trigger an extension of the rally.

Good trading!

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.