We had a significant down day today in that the day started out with a move sharply higher off the opening to new highs for 2006 on many of the indices, even the S&P 500, which was trailing for most of this week.  But that didn't last more than 20 minutes before they started to sell off, and they sold off very sharply for most of the morning.  Near the lunch hour they stabilized and meandered sideways in a consolidation pattern, but the last hour or so they backed off again to new lows for the session, closing not far off of them.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 96 1/2, the S&P 500 13 1/2, the NDX 16 and change, and the SOX 9 2/3, big losses across the board.

The technicals were very negative by 26 to 6 on advance-declines on New York and about 21 to 9 1/2 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was around 6 to 1 negative with a total of about 1 1/2 billion traded on New York.  Nasdaq traded 1.9 billion, with a ratio of more than 3 to 1 negative.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower but there were a couple strong gainers.  Low-priced Oralab (OLAB) was up more than 200% at one point, but sold off in the last hour.  It's was still up 3.76 on 6 1/2 million shares on news of a merger with a Chinese steel company.

Pacific Ethanol (PEIX), one of our portfolio positions, exploded for another 2.40 today and closed at 28 1/4 on 2.4 million.  China Natural Resources (CHNR) snapped back 87 cents, but even that was a point off the high.

Other gainers of note, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) was up 24 cents, Chindex (CHDX) 20 cents, Fuel Tech (FTEK) another 24 cents, and Universal Display (PANL) 20 cents.

On the downside, Xyratex (XRTX) was down 1.16, Optelecom-NKF (OPTC) down 1.26, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 1.03, and ChinaMed (CMED) 1.11.  Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) gave back 1.03 after reaching a new all-time high this morning over 40.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the possibility strongly exists -- due to today's decline and the technicals underlying the market -- that a top is in.  Of course, some follow-through will be needed to confirm, and key support has not been broken yet.

The market closed at key short-term support on both indices and we'll see if we follow through to the downside or reverse it back up early next week.

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.