The indices had a down-day for most of the session, but were saved in the last 40 minutes by a fairly sharp snapback rally.  The indices still closed down on the day but well off their lows.

The day started with a backing-and-filling session.  They tried a rally that did make new highs but quickly reversed.  For the next several hours the market worked its way steadily lower, severely testing key support at 1574-75 NDX and the 1189-90 zone on the S&P that was retested later in the afternoon.

When that was successful the market staged a last 40-minute rally and made up a vast majority of the losses.

The Dow was down 6.73 and about 62 points off the low just an hour before.  The S&P was down 2.83, but about 7 points off its low.  The was NDX down 4.83, some 13 points off the earlier low.

The SOX, though, had a pretty poor session, down 4.65, although that was about 2 1/2 points off the lowest level and really put pressure on the Nasdaq for most of the day.

The technicals were decidedly negative by 3 to 2 on New York and 17 to 12 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 3 to 2 negative on both exchanges.  Total volume was 1.7 billion on New York and 1.6 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed to mostly higher.  The star of the day was NovaVax (NVAX), which is a bird flu play that was mentioned favorably on CNBC today.  The stock exploded on more than 51 million shares, up 1.38 to 5.53.  

Forward Industries (FORD) snapped back 1.45 and Dynamic Materials (BOOM) 70 cents. Taser (TASR) advanced 45 cents on nearly 8 million shares, Kendle International (KNDL) 43 cents, HOKU up 74 cents on 3/4 million shares, and low-priced biotech Dendreon (DNDN) had a very strong day with a minor breakout on strong volume.  It traded 1.2 million and was up 48 cents, closing near the high for the day.

On the downside, as indicated earlier the SOX was down, and the SMH as a result lost 77 cents.  Alternative energy play Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) was off 60 cents, but Distributed Energy Systems (DESC) was up 23 cents.

Other stocks of note, Rediff.com India (REDF) gave back 85 cents today after yesterday's phenomenal gains, and Convera (CNVR) was off 25 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the key to today's action was that important short-term support held, not only lateral price support, but 21 day moving average support on the hourly charts and 5 day uptrend line support from which the indices then bounced sharply.

We'll see if they are able to get any follow-through and are able to take out key resistance.  Right now standing in its way is 1590 NDX, just 4 points from here, and 1201 or thereabouts on the S&P, about 4 1/2 points from here.

Good trading!

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. For more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a FREE 15-day trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary, or sign up for a Free 30-Day Trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.