The markets had definitive down day, a nasty start and a nasty finish. They opened lower, went down sharply in the morning and then bounced after a steep drop. At that point they went into a back and forth consolidation mode, sideways on the S&P 500 with a downward bias on the Nasdaq 100. Despite minor breakouts, the mid-afternoon rally failed to take out the morning highs, and they rolled over sharply and closed at the lows for the day going away.

The Dow was down 206, the S&P 500 nearly 23, and the Nasdaq 100 more than 48. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) dropped 13 1/2, more than 3 percent.

It was nasty day on the Street, with advance-declines 26 to 6 negative on New York and about 22 to 6 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 1/2 to 1 negative on New York on fairly light total volume of under 1.4 billion. Nasdaq had nearly a 9 to 1 negative ratio on volume, with more than 2 billion shares traded.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with quite a few stocks up on the session, although they gave back a lot of their gains in the last hour as the market slid into the close.

The strength today was in the junior oils, as the price of oil shot up again, over $138. The leader today was the US Oil Fund ETF (USO), up nearly 4 to 111, with a 112.30 high. Royale Energy (ROYL) was up 1.41 to 8.94, a big percentage gain there, Nasdaq's fourth leading gainer, up 18% today.

Pyramid Oil (PDO) was also strong, gaining 98 cents to 20.03, although that gave back about half its earlier gain. Mexco Energy (MXC) was up 41 cents, and GeoResources (GEOI) was up 80 cents. Brigham Exploration (BEXP) gained 26 cents and NOG 20 cents.

The junior solars also had a good afternoon session, and came back from morning losses. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) gained 51 cents, Solarfun (SOLF) 49 cents, and JA Solar (JASO) 72 cents. All were substantially higher with an hour to go, giving back a chunk of their gains but still ending positive.

The ultrashort instruments, as would be expected, had a strong session, with the QID up 1.81 and SDS up 1.74.

On the downside, shippers had a difficult session. DryShips (DRYS) lost 4.71 to 77.44, Excel Maritime (EXM) 2.65 to 40.81, and TBS International (TBSI) down 49 cents to 39.37, but about 1.50 off its low.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) nearly equaled its April low, tagged 15.37, before closing at 15.73, down 42 cents.

And the Q's obviously were negative, down 1.16 today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices as indicated started off poorly, consolidated mid-day, and then closed poorly at the lows for the day going away and at the lows for the entire move off the recent highs.

The significance of today's session is that the Nasdaq 100 broke key multi-week support in the 1948-50 zone and plunged through that, closing at 1924 and change. The S&P 500, which had broken support a couple days ago, continued to fall further, but now is at the bottom of its short-term declining channel.

We may be due for some sort of snapback over the next day or two that takes us back up to retest resistance. Unfortunately for the bulls that may be a shorting opportunity, but we'll see how it goes.

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.