The stock market indices started out the week on a down note, although the Dow managed to eek out a 1-point gain. But the day was sloppy as they opened higher, and then sold off immedidately, bounced, and had a 5-wave move downward today, reaching the session lows with about a half hour to go, near 2305 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1321 on the S&P 500. At that point, they bounced back to put the Dow back into positive territory and pare back the losses on the other indices.

Net on the day, the Dow as up 1.06 at 12,381.11. The S&P 500 was down 3.71 at 1324.46. The Nasdaq 100 was down 6.68 at 2314.50

Advance declines were 21 to 9 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 17 to 8 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little better than 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of just over 800 million. Nasdaq traded over 2 billion and had a barely positive ratio of up volume over down volume today. It was pretty much even.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative, but there were some outstanding winners today. Leading the way were the rare-earths with Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) up 4.69 to 71.88.

In that same group Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AVL) was up 37 cents to 9.65, and Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) up 69 cents to 15.11. China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources, Inc. (SHZ) also advanced 51 cents to 6.22.

Other stocks of note on our board tdoay included Affymetrix Inc. (AFFX) up 42 cents to 5.73, Biolase Technology, Inc. (BLTI) 40 cents to 6.16, Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NVMI) 49 cents to 10.56, Silicon Motion (SIMO) 72 cents to 9.81, TranSwitch Corp. (TXCC) 53 cents to 5.50, Tyco International Ltd. (TYC) 1.57 to 48.72, and Union Drilling, Inc. (UDRL) 70 cents to 11.02.

On the downside, some of the oil stocks were down significantly. As oil dropped back, so did the oil stocks. Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) dropped 1.74 to 33.82, and Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) was down 1.41 to 24.51.

Other losers today included Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) down 3.22 to 73.48, Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) 3.29 to 23.45, VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) 1.97 to 25.52, and Keynote Systems Inc. (KEYN) 1.06 to 20.37. IDT Corporation (IDT) reversed 2 1/2 points off its high and closed down 1.47 to 28.14. Golden Minerals Company (AUMN), a gold stock, was down 1.02 to 23.13, while Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 4.26 to 330.80 today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hour chart patterns, the indices opened strong, but then stair-stepped their way down in a 5-wave decline until about a half hour to close, and then bounced back. But it was definitely a losing day as key short-term support was taken out. The new downtrend may be under way, although short-term indicators are at secondary support and could bounce back from these levels. Still, it appears that the rising channel from the last couple weeks has now been broken.

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