The stock market indices suffered a setback today as early strong movement to key overhead resistance failed and they sold off for the rest of the session in stair-step fashion. The Nasdaq 100, reaching just over 1800, pulled all the way back to 1768, bounced, and then closed near the lows for the day going away.

On the S&P 500, early reaction highs up near 1061 failed right near that 1060-61 resistance zone, rolled over for the next several hours to get down under 1046, bounced to 1052, and then rolled over hard to close at 1047.

Net on the day, the Dow closed under 10,000 at 9985.81, down 74.25. The S&P 500 was down 8.11 at 1047.22, and the Nasdaq 100 down 21.86 at 1769.02.

Advance/declines were nearly 2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange and were 2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 4 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of just across 1 billion shares traded. Nasdaq volume was just over 1.8 billion and had a 5 to 1 negative ratio on declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly lower, but there were several stocks that were firm today. Leading the way was MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT), a fairly new issue, up 2.33 at 33.63.

Low-priced Cereplast, Inc. (CERP) was up 59 cents at 3.99. Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SOMX) gained another 26 cents at 4.60. McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR) advanced 82 cents at 14.09, Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) 54 cents at 24.09, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 29 cents at 32.49.

All other stocks that were up only gained small fractions.

The ultra-short ETFs were firm. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) was up 82 cents at 39.06, Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) up 41 cents at 17.25, Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 31 cents at 16.59, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 23 cents at 22.90.

On the downside, Google Inc. (GOOG) led the way down 3.64 to 450.98, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.87 to 141.81, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 2.61 to 248.28. Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) lost 1.20 to 36.05, Cree Inc. (CREE) 1.52 to 53.95, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 1.99 to 124.86.

Other losses of note were Nanometrics Inc. (NANO) down 67 cents to 13.24, Isilon Systems, Inc. (ISLN) 63 cents at 18.89, Cirrus Logic Inc. (CRUS) 76 cents to 15.67, and RINO International Corporation (RINO) 44 cents to 15.39.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after a firm opening and a move to new snapback highs, they failed right at the declining moving averages and price resistance on the hourly charts near 1800 NDX and 1060-61 SPX. That resulted in a 5-wave decline into the close during the rest of the session, closing the indices back down today and still in a downtrend.

Key support at yesterday's lows near NDX 1760 and SPX 1040 may be tested tomorrow, and are levels we need to keep close tabs on.

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