The markets had their second consecutive down-day, but it wasn’t dramatic. The trend down off the Tuesday NDX highs continued, while the SPX made a nominal new rally high near the opening at 1008. However, that reversed sharply and followed the NDX lower for the rest of the session in stair-step fashion. Only in the last hour of the day did they snap back to bring them off the lows and pare back the losses.

Net on the day the Dow was down 24.71 at 9256.26, with a high of 9325, about 75 points off its high. The S&P 500 lost 5.64 to 997.08, which was 11 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 at 1600.29 was down 14.15, 23 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 negative on New York and 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was slightly to the downside on New York on total volume of about 1 1/3 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2.3 billion and had a nearly 3 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative. However, on the plus side, the standout was Canadian Solar (CSIQ), whose earnings blew out Wall Street estimates, gaining 2.83 to 18.95 on 10 million, a big percentage gain there. But that was the only point-plus gainer on our board.

On the downside, Goldman Sachs (GS) lost 1.89 to 166.75, in a generally weak financial sector, which finally gave way today. Wells Fargo (WFC) reached a new 2009 high at 28.99, but closed at 27.97, 2 points off its high, down a nickel on the day in a big negative reversal.

Morgan Stanley (MS) lost 50 cents at 30.55, 1.50 off its high, and JP Morgan (JPM) 1.03 to 40.75.

OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) on light volume was down 1.70 to 29.01.

Orthovita (VITA) on an announcement of a secondary got hammered down to 4.44, closing at 4.98, down 1.62 on 11 million.

Among the ETFs we follow, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) fell 1.37 to 70.52, after reaching a new rally high of 76 earlier in the day. The iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) also lost 1.05 to 60.14.

The winning ETFs included the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ), which gained 43 cents at 27.47. The UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) rallied more than a dollar from its low, closing up 13 cents to 12.37, and the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) gained 70 cents at 16.30, a dollar off its low as well.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened higher but stair-stepped lower the rest of the session and rallied back in the last hour or so to take back some of the losses, but still closed lower for the second day in a row. It appears the indices may be topping as we were expecting, but we’ll have to see whether there’s downside extension and a distinct confirmation or not.

Key support beneath here to keep your eye on is today’s lows at 1596 NDX and 993 SPX, and beneath that the 1580 area on the NDX and 980-82 zone on the SPX.

We’ll see if they extend to the downside over the next few sessions.

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