The markets had some volatility today, with four swings in either direction, but ending up down on the session. The day started out with a sharp downward thrust on sharply lower futures, and then turned around rather quickly and rallied sharply, especially on the Nasdaq 100, reaching the 4-day declining topslines within an hour or so. The S&P 500 failed to reach its resistance and fell short, but then they rolled over, consolidated, and then accelerated to the downside in mid-afternoon, taking out the lows just nominally but did not follow through. When that occurred they turned right around and rallied, and did so with the sharpest rally all day, and only a late pullback brought them off the session highs.

Net on the day Dow was down 51.70, the S&P 50 7 1/2, and the Nasdaq 100 13 1/3. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 5.70.

Advance-declines were 3 1/2 to 1 negative on New York, and a little more than 2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 3 1/2 to 1 negative as well on New York on total volume of under 1.5 billion. Nasdaq had a 13 to 8 negative ratio, on a little more than 2.1 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower with some big losers, particularly in the shippers, where DryShips (DRYS) lost 8.07, Excel Maritime (EXM) 8.38 and TBSI down 6.13.

VMware (VMW) lost 4.57, Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) 6.11, Chindex (CHDX)1.14, and China Medical Technologies (CMED) 1.24 in a weaker Chinese sector today. Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) was down 2.12.

On the plus side, there were several fractional gainers. Among the few point-plus gainers was Ascent Solar (ASTI), one of our Charts of the week, up 1.60, and Immersion Corp. (IMMR), up 1.26.

Global Solutions (GSOL) snapped back 62 cents, SDS was up 97 cents today, the QID gained 37 cents, and the DUG 27 cents as these are short ETF instruments.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices swung back and forth in four major swings today and closed off the session highs but down on the day. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Overhead resistance is at 2210-15 on the Nasdaq, with the 2180-83 zone as support. S&P resistance is at 1510-12 and support at 1490-92.

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.