It was another negative session on Wall Street, a nasty way to end the week, but at least they came sharply off the early lows. Pre-market futures were limit down, as worldwide markets were down 8-10%, and the indices opened sharply lower, but immediately reversed and had a 3-wave rally that brought the NDX from 1148 to about 1225 in the first couple hours. The S&P 500 at that point jumped from 863 to about 888, but a 3-wave decline retested the morning lows successfully, and then they jumped in mid afternoon and were at the session highs with about an hour to go, at which point they backed and filled, pulled back, and in the last 5 minutes had very sharp down bars that took them substantially off the afternoon rally highs.

Net on the day the Dow closed down 312, the S&P 500 31.34, and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 37. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 4.39.

Advance-declines were 5 to 1 negative on New York and about 3 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was even worse, 6 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of just under 1.6 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.7 billion and had a ratio of 5 1/2 to 1 on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower except for the ultrashort instruments. The SDS gained 7.45 to 108.05, the QID gained 6.44 to 84.50, and the DUG gained 3.85 to 51.55, but all of those were substantially off the early opening highs. In fact, the QID closed nearly $9 off its high, the DUG about $8 off its high, and the SDS around $9 off its high as well. So despite the fact they were still up sharply, they came way off their opening gap-up highs.

Leading the way to the downside were the solar energy stocks, which got destroyed this morning. SunPower (SPWR) got as low as 34, but came back to 39.80, still down 3.10 on the day. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) dropped to 7.20 and closed at 8.31, down 84 cents. JA Solar (JASO) at 3.77 was down 64 cents, and Solarfun (SOLF) at 4.92 down 43 cents. It boggles the mind that these stocks were 5-6 times their prices just 4-5 months ago.

In pockets of strength, Apple (AAPL) gained more than 6 points off its low, but was still down 1.85 on the day. Broadcom (BRCM) managed to come all the way back from 14.50 to close at 15.64, up 23 cents on the day. Portfolio position EBS had a very strong session, jumping from 13 1/2 to as high as 16.14, before settling back to 15.65, up 44 cents on the day.

Qualcor (QCOR), another portfolio position, which got slammed down to 5.58 early in the morning, closed at 7.49, up 12 cents, a terrific turnaround session there.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices backed and filled and tried to base today but didn't make much progress. After the large down opening they did rally back, but closed negative on the session. We'll have to see what today means if anything, and watch overhead resistance to see if they can break out, but also closely watch support to see if the indices will break down and make lower lows next week.

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.