The indices moved lower today, but they did recover in the last half of the session to pare the losses.

The day started out with a gap up on Nasdaq, though the S&P 500 was flat , they then vacillated back and forth in the morning. After about an hour the indices rolled over hard, with the NDX dropping from 1764 to 1746, and the SPX from 1096 to 1086 at that point, a very sharp drop.

They tested support, bounced and for the rest of the session worked their way higher, but couldn’t get past key resistance at SPX 1092 and NDX 1758.

Net on the day the Dow was down 50.71 to 10041.48. It dipped under 10,000 to 9993 earlier, but recovered. The S&P 500 fell 6.85 to 1091.06, and the Nasdaq 100 lost 0.49 to 1756.19 after being up much of the session.

Advance-declines were 2 to 1 negative on New York and 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 4 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of under 1 1/4 billion. Nasdaq traded over 2 billion and had a 2 1/2 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed with the vast majority mostly lower.

Telestone Technologies (TSTC) led the way by far, opening at 9.31 and running to 12.28 on 3 million shares, closing at 11.15, up 2.67.

That was the only point-plus gainer.

On the downside, Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) dropped 1.91 to 85.21, and RINO International (RINO) 1.53 to 21.56.

Those were the only point-plus losers.

On the plus side, Ultrashorts ETF’s were firm: the Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) was up 40 cents to 19.19, the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) 46 cents to 11.35, the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) 31 cents to 9.73 along with the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) up 31 cents to 19.70.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the indices vacillated in the morning from slightly lower levels, and then dropped sharply by mid-day only to recover in a steady move back up in the last several hours to pare the losses.

Still, a down day today as key moving averages were tested on the hourly charts and held for now.

Levels to watch are 1746 NDX and 1086 and then 1080 SPX.

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