The indices had what I would call a disappointing session despite the fact that most of the them ended up on the day today. They started out with a big gap up on strong futures before the opening, and they ran sharply higher in the first 20-25 minutes or so, running into overhead resistance at the declining tops lines. Then they rolled over and then backed and filled for the next few hours, forming what looked like potential bull wedges, but they failed to break out to the upside and headed south just before the lunch hour. They stair-stepped their way down all afternoon and accelerated into the last half hour, going into negative territory, before a late snapback brought them off the lows and put some of the indices back into the plus column.

Net on the day the Dow was up 57.8 and the S&P 500 up 4.38, but both of those indices were sharply off their highs, as was the Nasdaq 100, which closed down 0.07, giving back a 30-point gain earlier in the day. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 1.91, but 7 points off its highs. So, as you can see, most indices came way off their highs to barely closed up on the session.

It can only be categorized as a disappointing day for the bulls, especially sincesupport was taken out and new decline lows were made on both indices today. They bounced and did come off the bottom of their declining channels, where support was to be expected around the 1910 level on the Nasdaq 100 and near 1331 on the S&P 500.

But the downtrend still remains in force and the pressure was certainly down in the afternoon today.

TheTechTrader.com board was a mixed picture, with some very negative decliners today. Leading the way today on a very disappointing earnings report was Chindex (CHDX), which got slam-dunked below 20, reaching as low as 13.59 before closing at 14.60, still down 6.17 on 2 1/3 million today. The stock broke key long-term trendlines and support.

Shippers took it on the chin today. Our Boxer Shorts DryShips (DRYS), Excel Maritime (EXM), and TBS International (TBSI) fell 6.11, 4.53 and 4.68, respectively.

Despite the fact that oil snapped back to close positive on the day, it was down sharply earlier and that affected many of the oil stocks. Mexco Energy (MXC) was down 3.30, GeoResources (GEOI) off 97 cents, and chart of the day Royal Energy (ROYL) after reaching as high as 9.64 in the morning gave it all back and then some, closing down 8 cents at 8.86. Pyramid Oil (PDO) managed to get back into the plus column by 7 cents.

Solar energy stocks were mixed, with Canadian Solar (CSIQ) up 99 cents, JA Solar (JASO) down 69 cents, and Solarfun (SOLF) down 42 cents.

Other stocks of note, China Architectural (CAEI) at 9.05 was down 1.15, continuing to pull back. But a lot of stocks ended mixed on the session after gains earlier in the morning, and many of them were just fractionally up or down.

Sequenom (SQNM) was up 90 cents, reaching as high as 13.28, testing Monday’s new 4 1/2 year high.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, as indicated earlier the indices remain in distinct downtrends. They reached the top of the channels in the morning ,but took them way off the highs, then slipped back to test the bottom of the channels late in the day, So, until we get a more definitive snapback that takes out overhead resistance right now in the 1950-55 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1353-55 zone on the S&P 500, we still remain in a downtrend and may continue lower.

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.