The indices ended the week on a down-note, but Nasdaq was much weaker than the blue chips, which has been the trend over the last week.

The day started out with a sharp move lower.  They stabilized after about a half hour, and started a slow, tedious snapback rally that smacked of correctiveness rather than impusliveness.

In the afternoon when the Dow and S&P 500 ran back up near their highs and couldn't get through, and the NAsdaq trailed miserably at that point, the indices rolled over. The Nasdaq, in particular, got hit hard, dropping about 8 points very quickly, before trying to stabilize at the close.

Net on the day the Dow was down just 5 points. That was only 16 points off the high, so it was a fairly narrow range today.  The S&P 500 was off just 2.  But the SOX was down 10 1/2 points, or 2 percent, and led the Nasdaq 100 down a sharp 13.40 today, closing pennies off the low for the day.  The Nasdaq 100 closed right at key three-day support, but did break its 5-day trendline.   The S&P also broke its 5-day trendline but held at a much higher level.

As a result, the technicals were negative on Nasdaq but actually were positive on New York.  Nasdaq had about 230 more decliners than advancers, but up/down volume was the story, with about 12 to 7 negative ratio, with 1.9 billion traded.  New York traded about 1.55 billion, and had just a fractional advantage on up volume over down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board had just two stocks that changed more than a point.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) popped for 2.20 on 1.9 billion, but Broadcom (BRCM) lost 1.50.

Other stocks of note on the plus side: China Automotive (CAAS) was up 75 cents on 2 3/4 million.  Nuance Communications (NUAN) to a new six-year high closed over 10 at 10.12, up 84 cents on 6.6 million.

Radvision (RVSN), one of our portfolio positions, was up 35 cents, and Viisage (VISG), another portfolio stock, up 33 cents.  Parlux Fragrances (PARL) advanced 83 cents today, and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) was up 61 cents.

On the downside, the SMH lost 81 cents as a result of the SOX semiconductor group being lower today.

Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) was off 77 cents, Rediff.com India (REDF) 67 cents and Nastech (NSTK) off 78 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the significance of today's action was that the late sell-off cracked the 5-day uptrend and closed below the 21-day rising moving average on the Nasdaq 100, but the S&P is holding up much better.   Although it backed off, it did so at key resistance at the 1288-89 zone.

We'll see if the blue chips can continue to lead and drag Nasdaq back up. 

Markets are closed on Monday.  We'll talk to you again Tuesday.

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.