The stock market indices opened positive but then immediately sold off sharply in a 3-wave decline that reached the session lows just before noon at about 1851 on the Nasdaq 100 and about 1100 on the S&P 500. They rallied backed steadily over the next couple hours to reach their snapback highs right above minor resistance, and then sold off, but with about 40 minutes to go snapped back again and managed to take back more losses, but still ended negative on the session in what looked liked bear-flag consolidation intraday.

Net on the day, the Dow closed down 66.58 at 10,444.37, the S&P 500 down 5.75 at 1115.05, and Nasdaq 100, down 13.64 at 1873.42.

Advance-declines were about 4 to 1 negative on New York Stock Exchange and about 3 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 1.6 billion traded, while Nasdaq had about a 3 to 1 negative ratio on total volume of 2 1/2 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly down today. Leading the way, Apple Inc. (AAPL) fell 4.02 to 248.34. Other point-plus losers included Amazon.com (AMZN) down 1.69 to 124.59, Cree Inc. (CREE) down 1.30 to 71.27, and Baidu Inc. (BIDU) down 1.44 to 70.13.

In the Chinese sector today, China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) lost 1.34 to 17.51 and RINO International Corp. (RINO) 1.46 to 12.40.

Vivus Inc. (VVUS) gave back 95 cents to 12.25, Houston American Energy Corp. (HUSA) 83 cents to 9.30, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) 95 cents to 42.41, Delcath Systems Inc. (DCTH) 85 cents to 14.30, and Brigham Exploration Company (BEXP) 61 cents to 15.66.

On the plus side, Goldman Sachs(GS) jumped 2.74 at 140.10, the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares ETF (EDZ) 1.46 at 53.36, and the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 72 cents at 29.81.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down in a 3-wave move in the morning, rallied back steadily but in a corrective-looking manner, and then rolled over into the last hour before bouncing late in the session to pair back the losses. Still, it was another negative session for the indices and short-term support taken out as well. The downtrend continues, although the oscillators are now getting oversold and we could be due for some snapback behavior.

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