The markets ended to the plus side on a snapback after a very nasty early gap lower. They stabilized and went on a 5-wave rally for the rest of the day. It was a rather choppy move. After a morning rally they then backed and filled for a couple hours, held support, rallied strongly mid-day, pulled back and retested and then came on with the strongest rally of the day in the last hour.

Net on the day the Dow was 300 points off its low, up 124. The S&P 500 was about 26 points off its low, up 4 on the day, and the Nasdaq 100 managed to get about 37 points off its low, but still was down 15.51 on the day. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 1.74 and closed about 9 points off its low, so major reversals.

The technicals remained negative throughout the session and failed to climb back to the positive column. Advance-declines were about 2 to 1 negative on New York and about 4 to 3 to the downside on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 7 to 4 negative on New York on total volume of a light 1.15 billion. Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion and had a ratio of 10 to 9 on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative, and there were several large losers. On the plus side, JP Morgan after acquiring WM and opening 3 points lower, reversed 7 and closed up 4.42 on the day on 119 million shares. Sequenom (SQNM) had a very strong afternoon and came back 2 1/2 points to close at 27.74, up 76 cents. Recent Chart of the Day Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) had another strong session, at 33.90, up 84 cents on 4 1/4 million. Portfolio position GB was up 49 cents.

Other than that the DUG advanced 97 cents, along with some small fractional gainers.

Portfolio position Questcor (QCOR) jumped to new 13-yer highs, reaching as high 7.32, closing at 7.20 up 15 cents on more than 1 million traded.

On the downside, loss losers included FSYS at 47.69, down 4.18, and yet that was 3 1/2 off its low.

Shippers got hammered today, with DryShips (DRYS) down 3.89 to under 40 at 39.50, and Excel Maritime (EXM) to new 18-month lows, at 16.39, down 3.34 on 4.4 million. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) lost 3.28, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) 2.08, A-Power Energy (APWR) 1.05, JA Solar (JASO) 1.83, and Solarfun (SOLF) down 95 cents.

UAUA gave back 81 cents today, but the obviously big loser of the day was WM, which got wiped out and trading was halted with the stock trading at about 16 cents. Wachovia Bank also suffered, dropping from 11.88 on the gap-down to 8.02, at one point down as much as 5 1/2, but in the last 15-20 minutes jumped 2 points to close at 10.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, as indicated the indices had a strong gap down, followed by a 5-wave rally back, closing near the high for the day going away. But we can't put too much credence in today's rally, as it comes ahead of tonight's debates and this weekend's bail-out talks, so perhaps a lot of news over the weekend that can change things quite dramatically on Monday.

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.