The indices followed through to the downside, especially early on, and ended lower on the day. But the path was quite interesting.

After the early selloff they rallied back very sharply, but came right up to initial key overhead resistance and failed, rolled over to retest, actually made higher lows, then tried to rally back ,but made lower highs. For the next several hours the indices continued to coil in narrowing wedge-type patterns and then when several tries at breaking out failed they rolled over in the last few minutes, closing near the low end of the session ranges.

So, they managed to come off their early sharp lows, but still rolled over into the close.

Advance-declines were a little worse than 2 to 1 negative on New York and about the same on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was greater than 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of about 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.4 billion and had a little more than a 2 to 1 negative volume ratio.

So statistically a decidedly negative day today.

TheTechTrader.com board was narrowly mixed, but there were some outstanding issues. Leading the way was American International Group (AIG), up 2.18 to 43.08. But the session low was 36.88, so the stock came back more than 6 points, a big reversal on 47 million shares traded.

RINO International (RINO) dropped sharply in the morning to 17.59 but roared back to 20.80, the high for the day, closing up 1.55, a nice 3.20 point reversal.

Among the junior biotechs, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) was up 57 cents to 8.29 on 4.6 million. Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) gained 24 cents to 18.20, and MannKind (MNKD) snapped back 40 cents to 9.60 today.

On the downside, there were no point-plus losers.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices plunged early, rallied back and then formed intraday wedge patterns, which gave way right near the end as the indices rolled over into the close. They ended above the session lows but still down on the day and certainly on the week, as the indices lost ground for the fourth consecutive session.

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