To say the least the market had two very different morning and afternoon sessions.  The day started out with a gap down, but the indices quickly recovered at support and rallied strongly all morning right to the lunch hour.  The indices had a sudden reversal, as oil made new highs, and plunged in the afternoon, taking out the morning lows and support, taking the NDX and S&P to new four-week declines lows.  Not only that, they closed near the lows for the day going away.

The Dow was down 85, the S&P 8, the Nasdaq 100 9 1/2 and the SOX down about 3 1/2, a very broad decline across the board in the afternoon.

Advance-declines were about 18 to 14 negative on New York and about 16 to 13 on Nasdaq.  It doesn't sound as bad, but most stocks were up in the morning and didn't give it all back by the end of the day.  Up/down volume was different, however, by 9 to 5 negative on New York with 1.43 billion traded.  Nasdaq traded about 1.7 billion with about a 3 to 2 negative plurality.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed. The losers certainly outweighed the gainers.  The leading loser was Dynamic Materials (BOOM), down 1.90.  It broke through 37 to new two-month lows today. 

Forward Industries (FORD) dropped 1.40 and also broke key support, and Catuity (CTTY) dropped 1.16.

Other losses included Broadcom (BRCM) down 75 cents, Genesis Microcap (GNSS) 72 cents, and Spire Corp (SPIR) down 53 cents.

The rest of the losers were fractional losses.

The plus side was led by the alternative energy stocks, not surprising with the price of oil as high as it was today.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) hit a new multi-year high, reaching over 29 before closing at 28.79, up 59 cents.

DayStar Technologies (DSTI), one of our former favorites, closed at 13.25, up 44 cents, and Evergreen Solar (ESLR) also a former Chart of the Week, was up 34 cents.  Distributed Energy Systems (DESC) gained 39 cents in that group.

Other stocks of note on the plus side, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) extended yesterday's gains, up another 86 cents today on more than 8 million shares.  ViroPharma (VPHM) added another 33 cents, continuing its recent phenomenal uptrend.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, today's rally ran right to key overhead resistance at price and declining tops resistance and backed away from it like it was poison.  The indices dropped dramatically to new decline lows, closing not far from the bottom of the 4-week down-channel, which we expect to be tested tomorrow.

The S&P 500 is not far from key support in 1205-08 area, closing around 1210.

So we'll see how it goes tomorrow.  But right now the downtrend continues, and did so aggressively in the afternoon.

Good trading!

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.