The indices started out with a steep sell-off particularly after the economic news came out weaker than expected. The Nasdaq 100 (NDX) and S&P 500 (SPX) dropped precipitously in the first hour, bounced and then made lower lows for the rest of the day until about 2 hours to go, when they held support and reversed in a snapback that reached 1480 and 920 on the NDX and NDX respectively. They then pulled back in the last 10 minutes to pare the rally.

Net on the day, the Dow closed down 82.38 at 8447, the S&P 500 7.91 to 919.32, and the Nasdaq 100 6.58 to 1477.25.

The technicals were negative by about 400 issues on New York and about 340 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 1.3 billion. Nasdaq traded just over 2 billion and had a 13 to 8 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board as a result was mostly lower, but the vast majority of those were just fractionally lower.

Ag/chem stocks gave it back. Potash (POT) lost 2.54 to 93.05, and Mosaic (MOS) gave back 1.64 to 44.30.

Goldman Sachs (GS) in a softer financial sector lost 1.92 to 147.44, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) fell 1.05 to 23.34.

There were no point-plus gainers on our board today. Fractional gainers included Palm Inc. (PALM) up 76 cents to 16.58, junior biotech MAP Pharmaceuticals (MAPP) up 38 cents to 12.22, and Geron (GERN) up nearly 1 point at 7.69 on 20 million shares traded.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down sharply in the morning, decelerated by mid-day, and then rallied back in the afternoon only to give back a portion of the rally late in the session. It was definitely a down-day on the Street, although the negativity was muted by a lack of confirming technicals.

We’ll be watching serious 4-day support at around the 1467-69 zone on the Nasdaq 100, and the 913 area 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.