The indices ended the week on a negative note, closing down again. They did manage to mount an afternoon rally that brought them off the lows, but late in the session they pulled back again and the S&P 500 closed not far off the lows for the day. The NDX was substantially off the lows but still a negative session.

Net on the day the Dow was down 146, closing under 12,500, and the S&P 500 was off 18 1/2, closing under 1376. The Nasdaq 100 was down almost 6 near 1959, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 4, closing just above 400.

The technicals were decidedly negative by 3 to 1 on advance-declines on New York and about 2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was much more negative, by about 5 to 1 on New York on total volume of under 1.1 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 1.7 billion and had about a 3 to 1 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with some outstanding gainers as well as losers. The gainers were once again led by the junior energy group, with a late afternoon rally bringing Mexco Energy (MXC) way back up, nearly 9 points off its low, closing up 6.90 on the day on more than a half million shares traded. Pyramid Oil also rallied, jumping from 17 1/2 to 23.70, but backed off to 21.75 at the close, up 2.35 on more than a million shares. GeoResources (GEOI) gained 2.11, and Brigham Exploration (BEXP) snapped back 70 cents.

Junior Solars ended mixed, with Solarfun (SOLF) snapping back 1.93, JA Solar (JASO) up 1.08 and Canadian Solar (CSIQ) up 59 cents. But there were others in that group that lost ground, such as Ascent Solar (ASTI) off 77 cents and Emcore (EMKR) down 4 cents. Evergreen Solar (ESLR) was up a nickel on the session.

Shippers were weaker with DryShips (DRYS) down 2.08, Excel Maritime (EXM) 2.64 and TBS International (TBSI) down 1.57.

Other losses of note: AgFeed Industries (FEED) broke to multi-week lows, down 1.83, closing at 14.15.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices completed a 5-wave decline today at mid-day and then tried to bounce, but ahead of the three-day weekend there was not much enthusiasm for it, and they ended soft on the session.

The indices had an important breakdown this week, with the NDX holding secondary support around 1950 despite the fact that the S&P broke below the important 1383 level late in the day today to break its key support. So a mixed picture into the long weekend leaves us with the trend in question.

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.