The markets opened lower and never looked back and closed at the low for the day going way.  It was a nasty session for the bulls, but the bears loved it.

The day started out with a sell-off that took 15 points off the NDX in the first 1-1 1/2 hours.  The S&OP 500 dropped 5-6 points the same period of time.

Then they went into a 2-2 1/2 hour consolidation period/ basing attempt, that turned into bear flags.  As lunch hour was ending the indices rolled over and got slammed, rallied back to resistance and failed, and came down very hard mid-afternoon, had a late rally, but with about 10 minutes to go that rally faded right back to the lows for the session.

Net on the day the Dow was down 115, the S&P 12 1/2, the NDX 31 3/4, and the SOX a whopping 12 points, or 3 percent today, and that really pressured Nasdaq.

The technicals confirmed the negative day, with advance-declines 3 to 1 negative on New York and nearly 3 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was even worse, 4 1/2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 1 3/4 billion.  Nasdaq also had 1 3/4 billion with a ratio of just under 5 to 1.

A very bad day on the Street. 

TheTechTrader.com board ran blood red for most of the day.  The losers today were led by Kendle International (KNDL), which got slam-dunked for 3.06.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) gave back another 1.46, Cutera (CUTR) 1.19, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) 1.15, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) 1.05 and Rediff.com India (REDF) 1.63.

On the plus side, Convera (CNVR) was up 40 cents, Real Networks (RNWK) 22 cents, and Sierra Wireless (SWIR) 27 cents.  Those were the only gains to speak of today on our board.

The consequence of today's action is they broke down through a couple key layers of support and kept going.  I was quite surprised to see not even a bounce at 1550 on the NDX.  When they hit 1545 they finally did bounce, but even that gave way and they closed at 1543. 

So the Nasdaq has given back about 2/3 of its recent rally in just two days.

The S&P has given back a like amount, but its overall pattern is a trailing pattern.

Despite the fact that this day was negative technically, the oscillators are not yet steeply oversold, although getting there.  The McCellan Oscillator closed the day at -99, down more than 61 points, and the Nasdaq 100 Oscillator closed at -17, down 44.  The S&P Oscillator is -23, down 34. 

But those numbers are not steeply oversold, and despite the fact they're very oversold short-term the decline could easily extend over the next few days, ahead of the Fed meeting on Tuesday.

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.