The 4-day slide continued in earnest today, particularly in the afternoon part of the session. The day started out with some backing and filling. A rally attempt by the S&P went unnoticed by the Nasdaq 100 and they failed to confirm. They rolled over in the afternoon, made new lows, but again not confirmed by the S&P. A snapback rally ensued in mid-afternoon that failed right at resistance and they rolled over hard into the close.

Net on the day the Dow closed at 12,987.55, under 13,000 for the first time in quite a while, down 55.19. The S&P 500 was down 14.52, and that was about 25 points off the high. The Nasdaq 100 was the real culprit today, down 52.14 at 1982, closing 61 points off the high. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 7.10.

The technicals confirmed the decline today with advance-declines about 11 to 5 negative on New York and 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little less than 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 1 2/3 billion. Nasdaq traded 2 3/4 billion and had about a 20 to 7 negative ratio of declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was hit hard today with a couple significant gainers. Sigma Designs (SIGM) on an upgrade, was up 2.47 on 1 3/4 million shares, which is heavy volume for that stock. ZIVX, one of our recent Charts of the Day, jumped 1.26 to a new 6- month high, closing at 18.63, up 1.26. The QID was up 2.17, the SDS 1.03, and the DUG oil and gas ETF up 3.29, as short instruments were higher today.

On the downside, multiple point-plus losers included DryShips (DRYS), which announced a 3 to 1 split and dropped 13.52, closing at 83.81. Also in the shipping sector, TBSI was down 11 to 42.22, and Excel Maritime (EXM) was down 6.63 at 44.84.

Other multiple point-plus losers included Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH), down 4.42 at 52.35.

Solar energy stocks got hit hard today, as some of the group leaders got pounded. First Solar (FSLR) was down 29 1/4 and Sun Power (SPWR) 18.35. Among the junior solar stocks, which we follow closely, Ascent Solar (ASTI) dropped 2.25 and Evergreen Solar (ESLR) 1.93.

Other losses of note, FuelTek (FTEK) got hammered for 3.53, closing at 25.11. GigaMedia (GIGM) at 16.43 was down 2.51. Global Solutions (GSOL) at 25.60 was down 2.30. VMware (VMW) got side-swiped for 7.38, closing at 80.36, down around 45 points in the last 4-5 days, and the Q's were down 1.27.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices resumed their decline in earnest today, especially on Nasdaq where losses were steady all day except for the morning snapback rally. The indices are now extremely stretched to the downside and oscillators very oversold. RSI and stochastics and MACD on the major indices are in very oversold territory. So I'm expecting a strong snapback rally sometime in the next 24 hours.

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.