It was a decidedly negative session in a turnaround Tuesday as the indices gapped lower, bounced, and then moved sharply lower midday before an afternoon bounce brought them back. But in the last 10-15 minutes, they spiked lower again bringing the SPX and Dow near the lows for the day.

Net on the day the Dow was down 137.63 at 7920.18, the S&P 500 down 17.22 to 841.51, and the Nasdaq 100 down 14.36 to 1522.31. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) lost 6.10 to 250.

Advance-declines were 21 to 9 negative on New York and better than 2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was just under 2 1/2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of just under 1 3/4 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2.2 billion and had about a 7 to 3 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower, but there were some outstanding upside issues as well, particularly in the ultrashorts. Dendreon (DNDN)on positive results from its drug trial gapped up 11 1/2 and ran to more than $25 in pre-market trading. It opened at around the 20 area in the regular session, and then bounced to 22, but fell back to 16 around mid-day, closing near 17, up 9.69, on 65 million shares.

Some of agriculture and chemical stocks fared well, with Potash (POT) gained 1.01 to 89.02, Agrium (AGU) up 1.09 to 40.62, and Mosaic (MOS) up 26 cents to 44.51.

SunPower (SPWR) gained 1.15 to 26.51, and Sequenom (SQNM) 35 cents to 15.02. Shippers did well, with DryShips (DRYS) up 52 cents to 5.59 on 43.7 million, and Excel Maritime (EXM) up 33 cents to 7.25 on 2.7 million.

Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) had a stellar day, reaching as high as 20.42, closing at 19.60, up 48 cents today on more than 2 million.

The UltraShort Financial ProShares (SKF) jumped 7.34 to 67.26, the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) up 4.94 to 36.41, and the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) up 2.85 to 51.45.

The Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) has an outstanding session, closing at 11.01, up 1.75 on more than 205 million shares.

On the downside, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) lost 1.91 to 7.84 on a record 370 million shares traded.

Goldman Sachs (GS) led the way down as financials led the market lower, down 15.04 to 115.11. Morgan MS fell 3.22 to 23.67, and JP Morgan (JPM) lost 3 to 30.70 on more than 107 1/2 million. Wells Fargo (WFC) declined 1.40 to 18.27, General Electric (GE) gave back 62 cents to 11.71, Hartford Financial Services (HIG) down 1.48 to 10.08, and Bank of America (BAC) 93 cents to 10.09.

American Italian Pasta (AIPC) lost 1.73 to 32.20, Apple (AAPL) 1.91 at 118.31, and Best Buy (BBY) 2.81 to 38.10.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped lower, bounced, and took back more than half of the loss, but then rolled over hard, taking out key 3-day support on the NDX and SPX. An afternoon choppy rally failed and faded in the last 15 minutes, as the indices gave back a good chunk of the afternoon rally, particularly on the blue chips.

However, today’s action did little to break the rising trendline or moving averages on the hourly charts. Until that occurs we won’t call this a top just yet.

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.