The markets had another negative session to start the week. They were down for most of the session and stair-stepped lower until about a half hour to go. Then they staged a very strong snapback rally, taking back half the losses on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, and three-quarters of the losses on the Dow.

Net on the day the Dow was down 59 1/2 after being down more than 200, the S&P 500 was down 16.25, about 14 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 down 28, about 20 points off its low. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell 5.18 today, closing about 4 points off its low.

The technicals were negative by a little more than 2 to 1 negative on advance-declines on New York and a similar amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 4 to 1 negative on New York on light total volume of 1.1 billion. Nasdaq traded a lighter 1 2/3 billion and had 3 1/2 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower. Leading the way to downside was AAPL, down 4.26. The agriculture stocks were sharply lower with POT down 6.47, CF down 2.41, AGU 2.09 and MOS 2.52.

ACH gave back 1.53, DRYS 1.27, ENER 1.55, RIMM 1.24 and RMBS 1.22. SPWR gave back a point, but managed to close 2 1/2 points off its low.

Top 20 List member TSYS was up 35 cents to 8.55, portfolio holding UEPS was up 2 cents to 13.30, QCOR snapped 32 cents to 7.87, and AUXL was up 35 cents.

Among the ultrashort ETF’s, the QID was up 2.63, and the BGZ up 3.20.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, technically the indices successfully tested and held last week’s lows, and managed to snap back late in the session. So we'll see if those levels continue to hold near the 1167-70 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 857-8 level on the S&P 500. Those are the very key short-term support areas that need to continue to hold in order to not see substantially lower levels.

So it'll be interesting to see if during this year end holiday low volume period this week the indices will hang in there, rally back, or crack.

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.