The markets had a lot of volatility today, especially after the FOMC announcement, and they ended up mixed on the session, but it was a very disappointing finish. The day started out with a move down. They rallied in the morning, but the S&P did not keep pace with the Nasdaq 100. At that point, they pulled back, retested the lows late in the afternoon on the Nasdaq 100, but meandered sideways in a coiling-like action on the S&P. When the FOMC announced another 1/2-point rate cut, the market exploded to the upside, pulled back sharply, held support, and then ran sharply to new session highs, taking out the first rally high.

With about an hour to go the markets reversed sharply lower and gave it all back and then some.

The Nasdaq 100, which had reached as high as 1843, closed at 1807, giving back 36 points inside of an hour. The S&P 500 got as high as nearly 1386, and closed at 1354, a 32-point drop. The Dow lost 240 points off its high.

Net on the day, the Dow closed down 37 1/2 and the S&P 500 6 1/2. The Nasdaq 100 managed to gain 0.84, but as indicated earlier was way off its high, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 0.90.

The technicals swung sharply to the downside during the last pullback. There were nearly 500 more decliners than advancers on New York and about 450 more on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little less than 2 to 1 negative on New York with a total volume of a little more than 1 2/3 billion traded. Nasdaq traded more than 2.6 billion, with a 14 to 11 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, a lot of them narrowly mixed. By far the winning group of the day was the dry bulk shippers, with DryShips (DRYS) up 5.91, TBS International (TBSI) 5.11, and Excel Maritime (EXM) 2.01.

Rambus (RMBS) gained 2.92 on a potential major legal victory. China Finance Online (JRJC) advanced 54 cents, but very few other stocks were up on our board today.

On the downside, recent Chart of the Week UltraLife Batteries (ULBI) got hammered for 2.84 on a downgrade Sigma Designs (SIGM) lost 3.02 today, and Cree Inc. (CREE) lost 1.10.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the overall patterns that had developed prior to the FOMC announcement were promising ones, and the market certainly took off after the announcement but failed to hold those gains and really gave them back in the last hour. We'll have to see if keysupport can continue to hold, which was tested late in the day on the S&P 500 at around 1353.

NDX support around the 1800 will be watched early tomorrow as well.

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.