Wall Street had an afternoon sell-off that broke the mid day consolidation patterns and took the blue chip indices to pretty sharp losses, particularly on the Dow and S&P 500. The Nasdaq 100, which has been showing much better relative strength in the last couple sessions, ended down just 0.16, although that was 16 points off the earlier highs. A late snapback in the last 15 minutes brought the indices back off the lows, trimming the losses.

Net on the day the Dow was down nearly 140 points at 139.88, the S&P 500 down 15 3/4, and the Nasdaq 100, as noted was down just 0.16. It closed about 16 points off its high, though also was about 9 points off the low. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) gained 1.14 today, and was relatively strong all day.

The technicals confirmed the down day. Advance-declines were negative by 2 to 1 on New York and by about 4 to 3 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 8 to 3 negative on New York on light total volume of less than 1.15 billion. Nasdaq traded 2 billion and was almost dead-even flat on advancing over declining volume.

As a result of the mixed to negative technicals, most of stocks on TheTechTrader.com board were mixed as well, but there were quite a few solid gainers. The outstanding stock of the day today by far was portfolio position Canadian Solar (CSIQ), which gained 4.01 on 5 3/4 million to close at 30.91, just a few cents off its high, an excellent relative strength day. Portfolio position Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) at 65.62 was up 1.42, although that was about 1 1/2 off the earlier high.

United Airlines (UAUA) advanced another 1.03 to 13.30, reaching as high as 14, a new rally high, as did many of the other airline stocks today. Chart of the Week VNUS Medical Tech. (VNUS) jumped to a new all-time high today, closing at 23.40, up 1.31.

In addition to CSIQ in the solar energy group, Solarfun (SOLF) gained 80 cents, and JA Solar (JASO) 46 cents.

Shippers were mixed, with DryShips (DRYS) down 1.36 and Excel Maritime (EXM) up 53 cents.

Portfolio position Sequenom (SQNM) snapped back 73 cents on 2 1/4 million, and portfolio position VeraSun (VSE) jumped to new 4-month highs, reaching as high as 8.48 before a sell-off brought it back, closing at 7.75, up 72 cents on heavy volume of 4.6 million today.

China Natural Resources (CHNR) snapped back 1.03 today, and the SDS was up 1.39 as would be expected on a down day.

On the downside, recent Chart of the Week Almost Family (AFAM), which had recently surges to all-time new highs, got slam-dunked hard, dropping from 44.40 near the opening to 35,80 at its low, before snapping back to 38.15, down 5.85 today, by far the loss leader on our board. Vision China Media (VISN), which we added late in the day today to our portfolio, closed at 18.70, down 1.09.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up in the morning, consolidated mid-day, and rolled over hard in the afternoon, and then snapped back late in the session, closing down on the day across the board, except for the SOXX index, which managed to edge ahead into the plus column.

However, on the hourly charts, the pullback so far looks orderly and if they can hold them near the current levels without much further damage, they can still attempt some more upside.

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.