The decline of the last week and a half continued today as the market sold off steadily all session.

The day started out with a move up that failed at resistance at the declining tops line, and they sold off sharply right into the lunch hour.  During the lunch hour and shortly thereafter the market firmed back up but failed at intraday moving average resistance, made lower lows by mid-afternoon and bounced in the last hour, only to pull back again in the last 10 minutes.

Net on the day the Dow was down 36, the S&P 500 7 and change, the Nasdaq 100 more than 18, the SOX was down just 1.74.  That was about 3 1/2 points off the session low, but failed to bring Nasdaq back up substantially.

The technicals were very negative, by 2671 down and 648 up on New York, more than 4 to 1 negative.  Nasdaq more than 3 to 1, or 2306 to 729.

Up/down volume was very negative as well by more than 3 to 1 on New York, with 1.85 billion traded.  Nasdaq traded about 2 billion with about a 4 to 1 negative ratio.

These numbers are starting to look climactic, and the indices are very oversold and getting worse by the day.  But so far the steep drop of the last week and a half has not been abated, and until we take out key resistance we could still work our way lower.

TheTechTrader.com board was very negative today, with the majority of stocks lower.  Only 4-5 stocks we follow were up at all today.

Leading the downside was Dynamic Materials (BOOM), closing at 39.67, down 2.29. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) gave back a lot of yesterday's gains, down 1.50 on more than 8 2/3 million.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) dropped another 1.55, Kendle International (KNDL) dropped nearly 2 points, and Cutera (CUTR) 1.83.

Other losses of note, Panacos Pharmaceuticals (PANC) was down 65 cents, Spire Corp (SPIR) 70 cents, and the majority of other stocks were just fractionally lower.

Cavalier Homes (CAV) managed to gain 39 cents today on news of another post-Katrina contract, and Evergreen Solar (ESLR) on an upgrade was up 74 cents on more than 5 million shares today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, while the ugliness of the plunge did not get any better, at no time have the indices been able to get back over their declining moving averages on the hourly charts or even the 15-minute charts.

For starters we'll be watching overhead resistance now at 1535 NDX and the 1183-85 zone on the S&P.  Beyond that resistance is at 1545-46 NDX and 1193-95 on the S&P.

Good trading!

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.