The August sell-off continued across the board today, as the indices suffered yet another down-day.

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The day started out with a minor gap-down and sold off sharply in the morning to new decline lows and then went into snapback mode. However, it looked like a corrective-looking move, although late in the session the indices did punch to new highs for the day on the Nasdaq.  The S&P and Dow trailed at that point, and when there was no follow-through they rolled over back into the close.

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Net on the day the Dow was down 53 1/3, closing under 10,400 at 10397. The S&P 500 closed down more than 7 1/4 at a little more than 1205.  The Nasdaq 100 was down around 7, just under 1559.  The SOX Index was down about 3 points today at 464.

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The technicals were decidedly negative by 22 1/2 to 9 1/2 on <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:State>, and by 20 1/2 to 9 1/2 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was negative by more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE, but volume was light at 1.15 billion.  Nasdaq volume was on the lighter side, too, with about 1 1/4 billion traded with a ratio of about 2 1/2 to 1 negative on up/down volume.

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TheTechTrader.com board was mixed to mostly lower, although there were some outstanding stocks today on the plus side. Catuity (CTTY) did it gain today, up another 2.47 on 3 1/2 million shares, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), one of our favorites this year, was up 1.28 to a new four-year high, closing at 31.21.

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Other stocks of note, ID Biomedical (IDBE), one of our recent Charts of the Week, was up 71 cents to 24.87.  Rediff.com India (REDF) was up another 1.08 today to 14.19, and Forward Industries (FORD) snapped back 39 cents.

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On the downside, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) gave back another 1.47 and fell to a two-month low.

Although there were more losers than gainers on our board, most other losers were down by just small fractions.

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Reviewing the overall hourly chart patterns, the intermediate sell-off that began at the beginning of August is continuing in a straight-line orderly declining channels on the NDX & SPX.  Today the bottom of the channels were tested.  The indices did bounce off of them, but backed off again into the close.  I think we're very close to perhaps a tradable bottom, but the trend remains down and has not reversed.

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