Today was a very disappointing follow-up to yesterday afternoon's rally.  The day started out with a very brief spurt at the get-go that failed quickly.  They sold off rather sharply to retest the lows and actually took them out on the NDX, but made a higher low on the S&P and Dow.  That triggered a strong rally just after lunch hour, but it fell short of the morning highs, and then over the last 2 1/2 hours or so the market drifted steadily lower.

All indices closed down on the session, with the Dow off a little less than 9, the S&P 500 down about 2 1/2, and the Nasdaq 100 down 11, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) off 2.71.

The technicals managed to stay on the plus side today on advance-declines, but up/down volume was negative.   Advance-declines were positive by 110 issues on New York and by 49 issues on Nasdaq.   Up/down volume was negative by 9 to 7 on New York on total volume of 1 2/3 billion, by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq on about 2 billion shares.

TheTechTrader.com board  was very mixed.  There were some outstanding gainers and losers today.  On the plus side, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) roared back more than 7 points on 1 million shares today, outstanding performance there.  51job, Inc. (JOBS), one of our recent Charts of the Week, was up another 1.39 to a new 2-year high.

Other stocks of note on the plus side, Sierra Wireless (SWIR) was up 67 cents, PW Eagle (PWEI) 71 cents, Universal Display (PANL) 53 cents, SunOpta (STKL) 55 cents, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 61 cents.  Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) advanced 60 cents as well.

On the downside, Apple Computer (AAPL) got hammered for 2.81 and Baidu.com (BIDU) for 1.68.  But the loss leader today was Rediff.com India (REDF), which after an earnings report dropped 3.33 on more than 1 1/2 million shares.  Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) also dropped 1.23.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the disappointing thing about today's session was that after several days of declines and a late rally yesterday the indices were unable to follow-through, and backed and filled in a retesting /consolidation type pattern.  If this does not result in a breakout to the upside, and they roll over, it could get ugly.

But oscillators and many indicators we follow are at multiple-month lows, and are screaming for a rebound, which I suspect we'll see over the next day or two.  But where it starts from and when is still an open question.

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.