It was about as ugly a session as we've seen in many months.  The market, which yesterday rallied strong mid-day and failed right at resistance late in the session, followed through to the downside today and sold off steadily all day. 

The indices in the last hour rolled over into even lower lows and closed at the lows for the day or very close to them going away.  The Dow was down 213 to 10,667, the S&P 500 down 23.55 at 1261 and change, and the Nasdaq 100 a whopping 53.54, more than 3 percent today. 

The SOX Index was the culprit, down 22.17, about a 4 percent decline.

The technicals were quite negative by 23 1/2 to 9 1/2 on New York on advance-decline, and 2220 to 820 on New York.  Up/down volume was even worse.  New York's volume was about  2.1 billion, with 1 3/4 billion of it to the downside and just 338 million to the upside, or more than 5 to 1 negative.

As bad as that sounds, Nasdaq was even worse.  Of a total of 2.4 billion traded, 2.1 billion of it was to the downside, about a 9 to 1 negative ratio, almost climactic-type volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower and there were some big losses today.  Broadcom (BRCM) led the way, down 3, as the semis got hammered.  Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell 1.43, the Qs (QQQQ) were off 1.27, and the SMH (SMH) lost 1.36.

Among smaller caps, Astea International (ATEA), which we sold yesterday, was down 1.54.  Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) also fell 1.54.  NovAtel (NGPS) was down 1.83 and PW Eagle (PWEI) 1.41, with Rediff.com India (REDF) off 1.01.

On the plus side, AVI Biopharma (AVII) exploded on 42 1/2 million shares, closing up 1.69.  But even that was 1.30 off the high reached earlier in the session.

Stereotaxis (STXS) was up 76 cents, and Zevex (ZVXI) was up 29 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were down and dirty today.  The indices declined all day, falling steadily all session, and closed at the lows for the day going away.

The S&P 500 broke a couple layers of support, as did the NDX.  We'll be watching to see if there's downside follow-through on Monday, but we're probably short-term oversold and due for at least a snapback early next week.

Good trading!

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. For more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a FREE 15-day trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary, or sign up for a Free 30-Day Trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.