The indices had a down day to begin the week, but once again a snapback in the last hour and a half brought them substantially off the lows and pared back the losses.

The day started out with a gap down. They bounced around for an hour or two and formed what looked like bear flags, and sure enough rolled over and came down sharply. But they stabilized by mid-day, and then bounced around in the afternoon and rallied.

At the close, the Dow fell 32.12 to 9337.95, the S&P 500 down 3.38 to 1007.10, 6 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 lost 9.06 to close near key resistance at 1610.43, 11 points off its low.

The technicals were negative by 8 to 7 on advance-declines on New York and by 14 to 13 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly dead-even flat on New York on total volume of under 1.1 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 1 3/4 billion and had a 9 to 8 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was very narrowly mixed. On the plus side, American International Group (AIG) advanced 1.56 to 28.70, and China Green Agriculture (CGA) 1.10 to 13.25.

Among other gainers, portfolio position Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD) at 5.36 was up 74 cents. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) added 93 cents to 19.33, and Yingli Green Energy (YGE) 68 cents to 14.08.

In addition, China Northeast Petroleum (NEP), a new one we’re watching, jumped 90 cents to 6.28.

On the downside, Goldman Sachs (GS), which has been weak for the last 2-3 sessions, continued lower, down 3.29 to 160.36. Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) lost 1.59 to 13.93, and the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) fell 1.36.

On the plus side, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) was up 48 cents to 25.76, UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) up 49 cents to 11.64, and junior biotech Oncothyreon (ONTY) up 45 cents to 5.89.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were down in the morning, consolidated mid-afternoon, and then snapped back in the last hour and a half to bring them off the lows, but still ending down on the session. It was a negative start to the week, and we’ll see what kind of downside follow-through we get tomorrow.

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