The indices had another very bad day and broke some key points of support today. The day started out with a move down, a rally try that failed immediately and then a sharp sell-off.  The mid-morning rally, which was a fairly sharp one, failed right at resistance, came down and made lower lows, had another solid rally try in mid-afternoon which also failed right at resistance and came down and retested the mid-day lows and bounced just slightly at the close.

Net on the day, it was a very negative day, with the Dow down 125, the S&P 500 off 11 3/4, the Nasdaq 100 down 20 1/2 and the Composite 27 2/3, with the SOX Index down another 6.22, or 1 1/2 percent, which did not help Nasdaq today.  The SOX went under 400 for the first time in quite a while, closing at 395.70.

The technicals were very negative by about 3 1/2 to 1 on New York and about 3 to 1 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 4 1/2 to 1 negative both exchanges.  Total volume rose to about the 1.9 billion mark on both exchanges. 

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative with some outstanding gainers today.  Dynamic Materials (BOOM) dropped another 1.69, Qlogic (QLGC) 1.35, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) down 1.30, and CryptoLogic (CRYP) 1.19.  Other losers of note, Air T (AIRT) was down 61 cents, Medicore (MDKI) 52 cents, Allscripts Healthcare (MDRX) down 52 cents and Wind River (WIND) had the wind knocked out of it, down 75 cents.

In the large-cap sector, the QQQQ were down a 1/2 point, as was the SMH.  Broadcom (BRCM) was down 63 cents and Intel (INTC) 33 cents.

On the plus side, WorldGate (WGAT) was up 39 cents and Geo Resources (GEOI) was up 46 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns,  key support at 1458-60 zone was broken on the Nasdaq 100 and the very important 1163 area was tested and slightly taken out on the S&P, so a critical time ahead of us and we'll see how the market goes tomorrow.

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.