The indices started the week on a negative note, but it sure was different in the morning.

The day started out with a sharp move up, testing the highs on the Nasdaq 100, forming a triple top of sorts there, but couldn’t punch through. The S&P 500 at the same time reached as high as 1092 and tagged is 4-day declining tops line, but failed there as well. They then sold off very sharply in late morning trade, with the NDX dropping from 1778 to 1740, a 38-point drop in less than an hour, and the SPX dropping 25 ,from 1091 to 1066.

Over the course of the rest of the session, they basically backed and filled, consolidated, but failed to break out either way, but closed negatively.

Net on the day the Dow was down 104.22 at 9867.96, and the S&P 500 down 12.65 to 1066.95, just a point and half off its low. The Nasdaq 100 closed down 6.88 to 1746.75.

Advance-declines were better than 3 to 1 negative on New York and about 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was the story, however, today, with about a 7 to 1 negative ratio on New York on total volume of just under 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.3 billion and had about a 2 1/2 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board closed mostly narrowly mixed on the downside. However, there were some gainers of note. The Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) gained 1.31 to 20.68. Portfolio position BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) jumped 1.28 to 10.94, reaching as high as 11.31 earlier on 12 1/3 million traded. Other flu vaccine stocks were firm, with Sinovac (SVA) up 57 cents to 8.06, and NovaVax (NVAX) up 34 cents to 4.38.

Opexa Therapeutics (OPXA) jumped 22 cents to 2.54, and Nanometrics (NANO) 19 cents to 7.56.

Ultrashorts were firm today, with the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) up 68 cents to 20.45 and the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) up 36 cents to 12.32.

On the downside, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) lost 5.69 to 77.83, and American International Group (AIG) gave back 2.65 to 36.25.

Financials were weak with Goldman Sachs (GS) off a point, JP Morgan (JPM) down 1.21, and Wells Fargo (WFC) 87 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were up early, down sharply before mid-day, and then consolidated for the rest of the session, ending to the downside to start the week in a continuation of Friday’s weakness as the SPX went to new multi-session lows. We’ll see if this continues during the course of the rest of the week and what kind of 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.