The stock market indices started out with a very sharp loss early in the session as they had large gaps down and sold off sharply in the first half hour. They then staged a 3-wave rally back, rolled over and retested, but when that was successful, ahead of the FOMC meeting, they started to bounce.

Investors took the FOMC announcement to be positive, as stocks took off and the indices bounced from 1883 to 1909 on the Nasdaq 100, and from 1113 1/2 to 1127 on the S&P 500. Over the last hour they backed off, bounced, and then pulled back once again into the close to end lower on the day.

Net on the day, the Dow closed down 54.34 at 10,644.41, but that was about 95 points off its low. The S&P 500 was down 6.70 at 1121.09, 10 points off its low. The Nasdaq 100 fell 15.93 at 1899.24, about 17 points off its low.

Advance-declines were nearly 3 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and up/down volume was about 3 1/2 to 1 negative. Total volume again was a light 967 million shares on New York. On Nasdaq advance/declines were about 3 to 1 negative, and up/down volume was more than 4 to 1 negative. Total volume, however, was just at 2 billion shares.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative today, but there were some point-plus gainers. Leading the way was Gartner Inc. (IT) up 2.67 at 28.23, ZST Digital Networks, Inc. (ZSTN) up 1.59 at 6.89, and Fossil, Inc. (FOSL) 3.37 at 45.84.

In addition, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) jumped 1.17 at 130 even.

In the ETF sector, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) jumped 1.68 at 32.07, and the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) advanced 1.23 at 34.45. We called both of those as longs in our Trading Diary earlier today.

Other stocks of note were RINO International Corporation (RINO) up 40 cents at 15, Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SOMX) 27 cents at 4.18, and Almaden Minerals Ltd. (AAU) 36 cents at 1.51.

For the most part that was it on our board today, as most long stocks were up just a fraction if they were up at all.

On the downside, leading the way today was Cree Inc. (CREE) down 2.63 at 68.69, but was trading 5 points lower in the aftermarket after earnings were released. Apple Inc. (AAPL) dropped 2.34 at 259.41, Goldman Sachs (GS) 1.50 at 153.90, and Google Inc. (GOOG) 1.64 at 503.71, among the point-plus losers.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early, rallied mid-day, rolled back in early afternoon, but retested successfully, and had a very sharp rally before, into, and after the FOMC meeting. Over the last hour they backed and filled, and pulled back to close negative on the session.

An indecisive day to say the least, but a negative one. We’ll see what kind of follow-through they get, up or down, over the next day or two. That will be more important as to the direction of the short-term trend.

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