It was a volatile session, down sharply in the morning, and then with a strong snapback rally for most of the rest of the day except for the last 45 minutes, when they gave a big chunk of it back and closed negatively on the session. Only the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) survived and closed in the positive column.

The day started out with a gap down after Intel's poor earnings. They did snap back early, but then fell apart and plunged below 1850 on the Nasdaq 100 and down to 1365 on the S&P. They looked pretty washed out at that point, with many of the momentum stocks, solars and shippers in particular, just getting completely whacked. Almost the appearance of throwing the baby out with the bathwater! When that occurred, they started snapping back, had a 5-wave rally into mid-day, tagged resistance, backed off, retested, held support and then came on strongly in the afternoon, moving back to secondary resistance but failing to make any further progress.

In the last 45 minutes as indicated earlier, they rolled back, and particularly in the last 20-30 minutes dropped sharply, gave back a big chunk of their gains, closing negatively, down 35 on the Dow, 7 3/4 on the S&P 500, and almost 22 points on the Nasdaq 100.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) did manage to gain 2.34, closing 11 points off a sharp spike low.

The technicals were nominally higher, just barely on advance-declines, with about 30 more advancers than decliners on New York and about 270 more on Nasdaq. However, the up/down volume was story, and volume was heavy today. More than 2 billion traded on the NYSE, with about a 10 to 9 negative plurality of volume. On Nasdaq a huge 3 1/2 billion shares traded, with a 19 to 14 negative ratio on declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower , but there were a couple big gainers. Recent Chart of the Day Pharmasset (VRUS) exploded for 7 points off the low and closed up 5 on the day on a very strong session. Cree Inc. (CREE) advanced sharply off its 24 low, tagging 28 at one point, closing at 27.82, up 3.37, probably continuing higher on takeover rumors.

Fractional gainers included Chindex (CHDX) up 29 cents, DG FastChannel (DGIT) 20 cents, EPAY 26 cents, INCY 34 cents, and UEPS 26 cents.

On the losing side, multiple point-plus losers included Ascent Solar (ASTI) down 2.40, China Natural Resources (CHNR) down 2.30, DryShips (DRYS) down 2.26, FuelTek (FTEK) 1.60, China Finance Online (JRJC) 1.77, and Sigma Designs (SIGM) gave back 2.37 but came way off its earlier low. Solarfun (SOLF) also lost 1.47 today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices plunged to new 2-week pullback lows, and then snapped back sharply but failed at key overhead resistance at the 1905-1910 zone on the Nasdaq 100. The S&P 500 also made new lows, snapped back sharply, but failed at price and declining moving average resistance near 1392 and then fell apart in the last half hour, as did the Nasdaq 100.

I did not like the way the market closed today, and that may have dire consequences for future price projections. It looks like they at least want to retest the lows, and 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.