The indices ended down today, accentuated by the last hour's decline, putting them back near the lows for the day on the Nasdaq, which had previously led the market most of the day on the upside.

It was a three-part session, with the indices gapping lower, moving down sharply in the morning, reversing after about a half hour, and then rallying in a three-wave rally until just after lunch hour. 

At that point the NDX had surged to new highs for the session, taking out a double-top resistance level at the 1684-85 range.  But the S&P trailed and was not able to confirm that breakout and as is often the case the negative confirmation resulted in a pullback which accelerated into the close.

The indices closed down 68 on the Dow, a little less than 5 on the S&P 500, about 5 1/4 on the Nasdaq 100, and a little more than 6 1/4 on the SOX, which pressured Nasdaq for most of the day today.

The technicals were negative by about 9 to 7 on advance-declines on New York and by 270 issues on Nasdaq.  The up/down volume on Nasdaq was to the downside, but just slightly so, with less than 9 to 8 negative plurality on total volume of more than 1.7 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but there were some big gainers today.  Eclipsys (ECLP), a healthcare information service firm, gapped up dramatically on earnings and upside guidance, and ran for most of the session, gaining 3.48 on 2.8 million.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) advanced 1.78 today on 1 3/4 million.  Rediff.com India (REDF) jumped nearly 2 points on more than 1.8 million shares.

Other stocks of note on the upside, Apple Computer (AAPL) was up 43 cents and Broadcom (BRCM) up 30 cents, both ending substantially off their earlier highs.

On the downside, Parlux Fragrances (PARL) lost 1.17.  That was the only point-plus loser.  BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) was off 64 cents, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) 44 cents, Bentley Pharmaceuticals BNT 80 cents, and NVIDIA (NVDA) 71 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the significance of today's action was that an intraday negative divergence resulted in the late pullback that pressed the session lows.  Tomorrow we'll be watching the 1670 and then 1665 zones on the Nasdaq 100, which is short-term support, and the 1285-6 area and then the 1281-2 area on the S&P 500.

Overhead resistance at 1688 NDX and 1294 S&P remain formidable levels that the indices need to work through to extend the rally.

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.