The markets had another down day to start the week. I don't know how many consecutive Mondays we've been down.

The day did start with a thrust to the upside and they had a nice sharp rally in the first 40 minutes or so that took the indices to the highs for the day, NDX reaching up to 1087 and change and the SPX getting up to over 695. But that was it for the day, and the indices sold off steadily in a 5-weave decline for the rest of the session in a neat orderly channel that closed near the lows for the day.

Net on the day the Dow was down just under 80 at 6547, the S&P 500 down 6.85 to 676.53, and the Nasdaq 100 down 20.83 at 1043.87, now about 24 points off its November low, the only index to still be above it.. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) closed at 190.47, down 4.54, and it was generally a negative session all around.

Advance-declines were negative by 2 1/2 to 1 on New York with 2214 down and 886 up, and a similar amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little worse than 8 to 7 negative on New York on total volume of 1 1/2 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2 billion and had a 3 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with several point plus gainers. Potash (POT) was up 3.00 to 69.31, Agrium (AGU) 1.15 to 32.58, and Mosaic (MOS) 1.19 to 40.35 in a generally strong AG sector.

Financials were positive for most of the day, gave back a bunch of it, but still closed up on the day, with Wells Fargo (WFC) up 1.36 to 9.97 on more than 208 million shares traded. Hartford Financial Services (HIG) advanced 48 cents to 4.10, and BAC was up 61 cents to 3.75.

General Electric (GE) gained 35 cents to 7.41 on 264 million shares, Geron (GERN) up 64 cents at 4.51, but traded as high as 5.24 in the morning.

On the downside, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) was down 4.90, as you would imagine with the financials positive despite the market being lower. The SRS ultrashort real estate ETF also dropped 3.32, but the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) advanced 3.77.

Apple (AAPL) down 2.19 to 83.11, Amazon (AMZN) 1.20 to 60.49, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 1.18 to 16.27, with SunPower (SPWR) down another 1.22 to 22.17.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices continue in their declining channels over the last 4 weeks, with the early morning rally reaching right up to the declining moving averages, which once again thwarted the rally and pushed it back.

The indices need to get over overhead resistance, which right now is near 1090 on the NDX and 700 for starters on the S&P 500.

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.