The stock market indices had a very choppy, sloppy day today, and although it can be considered a consolidation day, the market failed to breakout above the earlier session highs.

The day started out with a strong surge from the get-go to take the Nasdaq 100 from 2270 to 2300. The S&P 500 jumped from 1187 up to 1199. They then backed off in a 3-wave decline, holding the 2285 NDX and 1101 S&P 500 levels, and then a couple times rallied back up to the highs. There were four or five occasions today where the indices rallied back up, but couldn’t get through 2300 on the NDX and 1199 on the S&P 500. They backed off into the close, and close mixed on the session.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 16.88 at 11,416.30, the S&P 500 was barely ahead, up 65 cents at 1195.54, and the Nasdaq 100 up 16.27 at 2294.92.

Advance-declines were about 340 issues positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 550 positive issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York, with total volume of a light 845 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded 1.6 billion shares.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result of today’s action, was mixed. But one of the reasons the Nasdaq 100 was up as high as it was today was because Apple Inc. (AAPL) gained 11.48 to 400.29, trading over 403 at one point. InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) was up 3.20 to 52.08 on take-over rumors. Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) had a big day, up 2.67 to 12.91, jumping from 10.70 to 13.15 at one point. LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) was up 1.53 to 33.64, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) up 2.24 to 47.22, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.21 to 37.50, and Youku.com Inc. (YOKU) 1.45 to 21.74, snapping back sharply in the last week.

In addition, Research In Motion Limited (RIMM) jumped 1.18 to 24.41, and low-priced Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTI) was up 89 cents to 3.86, or 30%.

Other gainers of note included Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) up 20 cents to 1.73, AuthenTec, Inc. (AUTH) 47 cents to 3.79, Kenexa Corp. (KNXA) 2.03 to 19.36, Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) 97 cents to 7.25, Yandex N. V. (YNDX) 2.70 to 24.27, and The Jones Group Inc. (JNY) 1.01 to 10.70.

On the downside, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was down 2.96 to 108.66, and First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) 3.87 to 55.91, in an otherwise mixed sector today.

The ultra-shorts had a few losses today. VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was down 1.89 to 65.11, and Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 92 cents to 40.51.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up very sharply early, and backed and filled all day in trading ranges that failed to break out either up or down today.

We‘ll see whether this turns out to be a consolidation for an upside move, or a topping formation.

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