The indices were down again for the third consecutive session, which is the first time in quite a while, and may have confirmed the the post-FOMC announcement reversal that took place on Wednesday may have turned out to be a significant top.

They followed through today with an opening gap to the downside, made new lows on the Nasdaq 100 but did not confirm on the S&P 500, and then they bounced back to fill those gaps. They actually retested the initial resistance highs around 1054 SPX, but at that point the NDX was not confirming.

They rolled over mid-day in a 5-wave decline, and then reached the session lows just above 1690 NDX and the 1041 area on the SPX. A three-wave countertrend rally in mid-afternoon brought them back to price resistance, but they failed at the 2-day declining tops line and rolled over and closed not far from the session lows.

Net on the day the Dow was down 42.25 at 9665.19, the S&P 500 down 6.40 at 1044.38, and the Nasdaq 100 down 15.61 at 1694.15.

Advance-declines were negative by about 270 issues on New York, but by nearly 400 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 2 to 1 negative on New York on lighter total volume of just under 1.2 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2 1/4 billion and had a nearly 2 to 1 negative volume ratio.

Many stocks on TheTechTrader.com board were fractionally and narrowly changed, with no point-plus gainers and only a couple point-plus losers. Goldman Sachs (GS) declined 3.56 to 179.50, and the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) 2.39 at 77.69 on 26 million. Financials were generally soft today, with JP Morgan (JPM) lost 72 cents to 43.65, Wells Fargo (WFC) 26 cents to 28.19 and Morgan Stanley (MS) 18 cents to 30.55.

On the plus side, the ultrashorts all moved up for the third day in a row, with the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) up 36 cents to 22.27, the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) 61 cents to 22.25, and the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) up 21 cents to 12.50.

Among some of the issues we watched or traded today, new portfolio position Cytokinetics (CYTK) gained 50 cents to 4.98 on 2.8 million, India Globalization (IGC) up 34 cents at 1.58 on more than 2.1 million, and United and portfolio position Westport Innovations (WPRT) advanced 64 cents to 11.66, nearing its 52-week high.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the downtrend continued today. Although they did try to rally a couple times, both rallies failed and the indices closed not too far off the session lows, near the low end of the trading range for day and the week. We’ll see if there’s any downside follow-through early next week, although the indices are in oversold territory and we could see a snapback retest at some point next week.

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