The stock market indices had a down day today. They started out the day moving lower, bouncing, and then retesting. The Nasdaq 100 held successfully, although at that point the S&P 500 made a new session low. When the NDX failed to confirm the new session low on the S&P 500, the indices went into a 3-wave advance, reaching new session highs and nearly equaling yesterday’s high on the NDX but falling short on the SPX.

When the rally failed in midday they rolled over hard in a 5-wave decline, spiking down and reaching the session lows with about 45-50 minutes to go in the session, taking out the key 3-day support on the SPX and testing them on the NDX.

When the NDX failed to confirm the SPX new low, they snapped back very sharply in the last 35-45 minutes and took back half the losses. Still ended negative on the day but came way off the lows.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 72.47 at 10,897.52, about 65 points off its high. The S&P 500 closed down 6.99 at 1182.45, which was about 7 points of its high.

Advance-declines were 19 to 11 negative on the New York Stock Exchange and 14 to 12 negative on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly lower with a few point-plus losers. Leading the way by far was Houston American Energy Corp. (HUSA), which on a negative report got slammed from over 20 to nearly 14 today, closing at 14.51, down 5.84 on 4.5 million shares. Heavy volume for this stock today.

The other point-plus loser for today was China Agritech (CAGC), down 1.24 at 23,

Large fractional losers included Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE) at 21.87 down 79 cents, China Armco Metals (CNAM) at 8.50 down 53 cents, Cardiome Pharma Corp. (CRME) at 6.92 down 42 cents, Gulfport Energy (GPOR) at 13.66 down 38 cents, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) at 22.93 down 50 cents, McMoRan (MMR) at 16.16 down 59 cents, and Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) at 16.68 down 91 cents. Profit-taking pressured the junior oils today.

Pozen, Inc. lost 49 cents to 10.49, RINO International (RINO) 36 cents to 20.21, Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) 70 cents to 38.46, and TiVo Inc. (TIVO) 38 cents in a big negative reversal of 1.50 from an earlier point-plus gain, ending at 17.16.

On the plus side, Integrated Silicon Solutions (ISSI) jumped 53 cents in continuing its rally to close at 11.77. Delcath Systems (DCTH) gained 35 cents to 8.75, and Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) 46 cents to 23.29.

The big winner for today was American International Group (AIG), jumping 3.78 to 39.69, trading near 40 in the aftermarket.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices moved back and forth in the morning, dipped mid-morning, and then rallied to the session highs by midday, rolled over hard in the afternoon, but snapped back sharply in the last 40 minutes to pare back the gains. Still, it was a negative day for the indices as the moving averages on the hourly charts were severely tested but survived, at least for today.

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