The indices closed mixed at the end of the session, and the best part of the day was the mid-morning rally that worked its way through the lunch hour, but the afternoon was pretty much a consolidation of the morning rally. Nasdaq had a much better session today than the blue chips did, but the technicals were rather positive for a mixed session, and that augers well for more price progress.

The day started out with some back and forth action early in the morning. Then they started a solid rally that broke the Nasdaq 100 out above 1900 resistance. The S&P 500 did follow eventually and worked its way above resistance at 1450, but couldn't get too much further than that, up around 1455. The Nasdaq did get up to secondary resistance at 1915, but that was high for the day right there. They had a three-wave decline into the last hour, and then a bounce-back into the close, with just a late pullback on the S&P and blue chips tainting the session.

The Dow dipped back below 13,100, closing at 13,090, down about 30 1/2. The S&P 500 was up 1 1/2 and the Nasdaq 100 up nearly 18. But the OEX lost 0.27 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) lost 0.11, as it was a mixed to narrow day.

The technicals were 3 to 2 positive on advance-declines on the NYSE, but only ahead by about 125 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq and about 7 Ã,½ to 5 Ã,½ positive on New York. Total volume was again comparatively light, with about 1 1/3 billion traded on New York and under 1 2/3 billion on Nasdaq.

There were mostly fractional changes on TheTechTrader.com board, except for a few outstanding issues. By far the outstanding stock today was recent IPO VMWare (VMW), which opened in the high 50s, backed off a couple points, and then ran hard for $10, closing up 8.66 on the day, on 7 1/3 million, an outstanding performance. It was our Chart of the Day -- see our video chart presentation at http://www.thetechtrader.com/info/charts/index.php?id=72

Other point-plus gainers included DryShips (DRYS), up 1.89, and Excel Maritime (EXM), up 1.34, both in the shipping group. Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) continued its rally, up 1.92 to 42.34. That's about 9 points off its low from just a few days ago.

Dynamic Materials (BOOM) advanced 97 cents. Blue Phoenix had a good day, up 78 cents. Chindex (CHDX) gained 64 cents, China Medical Technologies (CMED) 76 cents, Syntax-Brillian (BRLC) 36 cents and LSB Industries (LXU) up 98 cents. JA Solar (JASO) gained 89 cents, and PRG-Schultz International (PRGX) 96 cents. Sigma Designs (SIGM) had an outstanding session today, advancing 2.25 to 35.40, just pennies shy of its all-time high.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices rallied in the morning and got right up to the top of the intermediate declining channel going back four weeks now, and then backed off late in the session. We're at an important inflection point and resistance level, particularly on the NDX, around the 1915 area. S&P resistance at 1455-60 zone thwarted today's advance, and we'll see if they need to do some backing and filling and retesting before they can make further progress.

We'll be watching key support first at 1900 and then at 1875-80 on the NDX, and 1440 and 1430 on the S&P 500.

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.