The indices had a very negative close and were down sharply on the day.  However, the day started out with a move down that held support, and then a very strong morning rally took the indices to new rally highs on the S&P, but just slightly, and was not confirmed by the NDX, which fell slightly short.

At that point they pulled back to retest support, and when no rally materialized they sold off steadily for the rest of the day, closing at the lows for the day going away.

The Dow was down 91, the S&P 10.30, the Nasdaq 100 nearly 100 and the Composite 23 1/3.  The SOX Semiconductor Index was down 1.62, about 10 points off its morning high, so it gave it all back and then some.  That put severe pressure on Nasdaq.

The technicals confirmed the negative day by 22 to 10 negative on advance-declines on New York and 21 to 9 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was a little less than 4 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of about 1 1/4 billion.  Nasdaq traded a little more than 1.4 billion on Nasdaq, with up/down volume about 4 1/2 to 1 negative.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower across the board, except for one shining star, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), one of our Watchboard stocks.  It soared 1.36 on solid volume today, closing not far off the high for the day. 

Only a couple other stocks were up small fractions.  Low-priced Chipmos (IMOS) was up 27 cents and CryptoLogic (CRYP) up 19 cents.

On the downside, the SMH, which at one point was up 80 cents, closed off 6 cents today.  The QQQQ were off 33 cents. 

Among the tech sector larger-cap stocks, QLogic (QLGC) was down 98 cents and Juniper Networks (JNPR) 67 cents.

Other stocks of note, Forward Industries (FORD), which has been advancing sharply of late, gave it back and then some.  It had a very negative afternoon, dropping from the morning high around 17 to close at 15, down 1.39.

JAMDAT Mobile (JMDT) was down 1.22, Arrythmia Research (HRT) 98 cents, and Dynamic Materials (BOOM) 57 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, Nasdaq failed right at last week's highs, which obviously was resistance, and had a very negative pullback in the afternoon.  Similarly, the S&P failed at the 1165 area,  which I noted last week was key overhead resistance, and sold off sharply.

Going forward, the key is going to be whether they can hold lower levels of support in the 1410-15 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1140-43 zone the S&P 500.

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.