The stock market got an early morning follow through to yesterday's rally and extended the 4-day move, but mid-morning they rolled over, tested and bounced, consolidated during the lunch hour and then rolled over in the afternoon and headed sharply lower mid-afternoon. Only a last 20-minute rally brought them off the spike lows of the afternoon decline, which reached 1770 NDX and 1340 S&P. They halted the slide with a sharp snapback. The S&P recovered 9 points and the NDX recovered 11 just in the last 20 minutes, but still left the picture mixed on the day.

Despite the 133-point gain by the Dow and nearly 10-point gain by the S&P 500, the NDX was down 12 1/2, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) down 2.34.

But technicals were positive for the most part on New York by 3 to 2 on advance-declines and 2 to 1 on up/down volume, with 1 1/2 billion traded. Nasdaq was 17 to 13 positive on advance-declines but 4 to 3 negative on declining volume over advancing volume, with total volume of just under 2.2 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, with a few point-plus gainers and losers. Sigma Designs (SIGM) was the leader on the plus side, up 2.28. Nuance Communications (NUAN) on strong earnings was up 1.94.

Chindex (CHDX) continued its strong advance, up 74 cents to a new all-time closing high of 41.57. UEPS snapped back 92 stocks.

On the downside, Cree Inc. (CREE) finally succumbed to profit-taking off the strong run of late, down 1.84. The shipping sector was soft with Excel Maritime (EXM) down 1.38 and TBS International (TBSI) 1.89, but DryShips (DRYS) was off just 58 cents.

Mercadolibre (MELI), which was yesterday's Chart of the Day, exploded in the morning, ran from 36 to 38.87 but rolled over hard in the afternoon, dropping 4 3/4 and closing down 1.54 on the day.

Solar energy stocks were mixed to lower, with Ascent Solar (ASTI) down 46 cents, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) down 12 cents, and Solarfun (SOLF) down 57 cents. JA Solar (JASO) dropped 38 cents today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a very sharp late afternoon break which broke the back of the 4-day uptrend but held at the moving averages on the hourly charts and bounced late in the session. We'll see if that has positive or negative consequences. Right now the jury is still out, with the indices closing mixed, despite the strong showing by the blue chips today.

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.