The indices had a very nominal gaining session today at the end of the day, because of a late sell-off.

The day started out with back and forth choppiness for most of the morning, but it looked like bullish-type consolidations as support held three times in the morning.

That resulted in a bounce back up to test the early the highs. A subsequent pullback and retest was successful and they then stair-stepped their way higher, just nominally taking out initial resistance on the S&P 500, but got very little follow-through and in the last hour rolled over and took back a large portion of the gains.

Net on the day the Dow was up just 4.76 at 8183.17, the S&P 500 gained 3.12 to 882.68, and the Nasdaq 100 up 3.45 to 1414.98. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) had a real strong session, up 7.01 at 257.95, a gain of 2 Ã,½ percent.

Advance-declines were positive by 3 to 2 on New York and by just 32 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of under 1 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 1.85 billion and had a 2 Ã,½ to 1 positive volume ratio.

As a result of the positive technicals, most stocks on TheTechTrader.com board were up today.

But strange as it seems, even some of the ultrashorts were up today. The UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS), despite the market gains, was ahead by 64 cents to 22.67. The Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) also was up 34 cents to 26.67, quite possibly a bearish indication of things to come.

As a side note, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) and Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) both had substantial reverse splits today, with the FAS splitting 1 for 5 and the FAZ splitting 1 for 10. The FAZ closed down 2.05 at 54.35 and the FAS was up 1.35 at 38.90.

Other gainers of note, Goldman Sachs (GS), in a generally firm financial sector, gained 4.66 to 143.21. Wells Fargo (WFC) was up 37 cents, and JP Morgan (JPM) up 91 cents. Morgan Stanley (MS) gained 38 cents.

The ag/chems were strong, with Potash (POT) up 2.91 to 92.51 and Mosaic (MOS) up 2.09 at 42.76.

Among the fractional gainers, Cornerstone Therapeutics (CRTX) gained 67 cents, and Dendreon (DNDN) 88 cents. OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) was up 35 cents, Rambus (RMBS) 45 cents. Yingli Green Energy (YGE) 59 cents, and Canadian Solar (CSIQ) 46 cents in a strong junior solar sector.

On the downside there were just a few fractional losers on our board today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, it was a tight choppy session with the indices bouncing around in the morning, rallying mid-day and then rolling over towards the end of the today, closing just fractionally ahead on the session, with mixed technicals.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.