Another nasty session as the early 2008 decline continued in earnest, but the sharpest decline took place late in the day. In the morning they tried to rally, got up to key overhead resistance, backed off, then moved back up to retest those resistance levels again. But when the S&P 500, which had gotten up to key resistance just above 1980 in the morning, trailed badly & fell short of that level by more than 5 points, the lack of confirmation caused a rollover that accelerated sharply lower.

In the last 90 minutes alone, the Nasdaq 100 dropped from 1982 to 1910, a 72-point drop, about as steep a drop as seen in quite a while.

The S&P 500 in that same period of time, dropped about 37 points, so a very nasty decline late in the session on fears of potential bankrupty from Countrywide and other negative news.

Net on the day the Dow was down 238.42, closing under 12,600. The S&P 500 was down 26 points, closing at 1390, and the Nasdaq 100 was down 47. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) index was down nearly 10 points, about a 2 1/2percent loss.

The technicals were negative as advance/declines were lower by 2 to 1 on New York and more than 2 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq.

Up/down volume was even worse, more than 4 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of more than 1.8 billion. Nasdaq traded a heavy 2.6 billion, and had a 4 to 1 negative ratio as well.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, mostly narrowly mixed, but there were some outstanding issues. ISIS Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) on a major drug deal shot up to as high as 22.87 in pre-market, backed all the way down to 18.34, closing at 18.58, still up 4 on the day on 23 1/4 million shares. But a big gap up in the morning is what caused the majority of the gains.

Pharmasset (VRUS), yesterday's Chart of the Day, exploded after an initial drop in the morning, jumping from 19 1/4 to 33.90, before backing off several points and closing at 26.86, still up 6.62 today on 2.1 million.

Shippers were mixed, with DryShips (DRYS) down 54 cents on the day. That was about 3 1/2 points off the earlier high. TBS International (TBSI) was up 1.82 and Excel Maritime (EXM) 30 cents.

Solar energy stocks were all over the place, down in the morning, up strongly mid-day, and then backed off near the lows for the day at the end of the day. Ascent Solar (ASTI)Stood out & managed to hold on to a 1.06 gain today.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) was up 1.40, but had been up more than 4 at one point. Converted Organics (COIN), the #1 percent gainer on Nasdaq today, was up 2.05, or 37%, to 7.60.

On the downside, there were only a couple point-plus losers. Akeena Solar (AKNS) on negative comments from Cramer dropped 1.87. Eschelon Corp. (ELON) fell 1.36, Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) 1.59, and Solarfun (SOLF) 1.70, trading in a more than 4-point range today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, key technical damage was done again today as 2-day solid support at 1930 NDX and 1404-05 S&P was broken solidly right near the close. The indices now look lower, and are in dire technical shape right now, although it'll be interesting to see the closing readings on the oscillators. They appear to be getting oversold enough to set up a strong technical snapback rally, although that may occur from lower levels. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

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.