The indices had a solid down-day today, falling from the get-go and stair-stepping their way lower all session, except for a late-morning consolidation. In the last hour they came back sharply, paring back the losses, but still ended down.

Net on the day the Dow lost nearly 130 to 8292.13, the S&P 500 down just under 15 at 888.34, and the Nasdaq 100 down 26.33 at 1367.39. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell 6.59 to 250.40.

The technicals were negative by 3 to 1 on advance-declines on New York and 2 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 1/2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of just under 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded about 2.2 billion and had a nearly 4 to 1 volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed. Among points plus movers, it was mostly large losses. The agriculture/chemical group was quite weak today, with Potash (POT) down 4.68 to 109.55 and Mosaic (MOS) down 3.47 to 53.35.

Amazon (AMZN) lost 2.01 to 75.96, Apple (AAPL) dropped 1.69 to 124.18, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) was down 1.12 to 22.94.

On the plus side, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) was up 1.20 to 10 & STEC gained 89c to 16.20.

The financial sector was mixed, as Goldman Sachs (GS) managed to gain 1.07, recovering 3 1/2 points off its low. Wells Fargo (WFC) added 58 cents, Bank of America (BAC) lost 8 cents, and JP Morgan (JPM) rose 35 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices plunged under their moving averages on the hourly charts and despite a late pullback off of last week's support lows, closed negative on the day.

The positive part about today's session, if there was one, was that 880 support on the SPX – last week's lows -- held firmly and the index bounced sharply off that level. The Nasdaq 100 held above its lows, with support in the 1345-50 zone area.

In any case, tomorrow we'll see if the rally was anything more than just late short covering.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.