It was a pretty interesting day, with three distinct parts to it.  The first part was literally the first few minutes when the market gapped up big. They then backed and filled and consolidated in what looked like a bullish consolidation before the next leg up.  That went on for several hours into the early afternoon.

When an early afternoon rally materialized but failed to take out the highs and they rolled over and took out the morning lows, the market accelerated to the downside.  It sold off hard into the close, closing at the lows for the day going away. 

The Dow, which had been up more than 75 points earlier in the morning, rolled over and closed down 27 on the day.  The S&P 500, which was up 12 points earlier in the day, closed down 5.50, a complete reversal there.  The NDX dropped from 1601 to 1569 in the last couple hours, closing at the lows for the day going away, down 15 1/2.  The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) got hammered for 14 points off the high, down 7 1/2 on the day. 

So, it was an extremely negative follow-up to yesterday's promising close.  Overall with the NDX closing at a nominal new low for this entire two-week decline, and with the way they closed, it's possible we'll see lower prices tomorrow at the opening.  But so far the S&P and Dow have not confirmed the new NDX low.

The technicals reversed from very positive to slightly negative, with about an 18 to 15 ratio on advance-declines on the NYSE and about 17 to 13 1/2 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 5 to 4 negative on New York with a little less than 1.9 billion traded.   Nasdaq traded more than 2.1 billion with a  2 to 1 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was very active, with several major gainers despite the sell-off (although they gave back some of their gains).  Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) closed up 4.32 on nearly 11 million shares.  MGP Ingredients (MGPI), also in that that group, closed up 3.23.  DXP Enterprises (DXPE) was up 2.80 and Baidu.com (BIDU) up 3.57.

On the downside, Amazon (AMZN) gave back 1.07 and Broadcom (BRCM) 90 cents. The SMH was off 83 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the possibility of a bottoming type formation is still there, but the late sell-off does not augur well for prices unless they stop the bleeding rather quickly and bring them back up to retest the highs.

The levels we'll be watching tomorrow on the NDX is resistance at 1585-90 and then the 1600-02 area.  S&P resistance is at 1255 and then 1270-72.

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.