The markets had a miserable and very negative session to start the post holiday week.  The indices started out with a large gap down and went sharply lower in the morning, tried to bounce a few times but basically stair-stepped lower all day, rolling over sharply in the last hour, closing at the lows for the day going away.

The Dow closed down under 11,000, off 184 points.  The S&P 500 was down more than 20 and the Nasdaq 100 more than 35.  The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell more than 10.

So, it was a broadly negative day across the board.

The technicals reflected that with 26 to 7 plurality of decliners over advancers on New York and 23 to 7 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was extremely negative, by a whopping, near-climactic 8 to 1 ratio on New York on total volume of over 1 1/2 billion.  Nasdaq traded more than 1.7 billion with a 4 to 1 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was broadly lower across the board.  Only 51job, Inc. (JOBS), one of our Charts of the Week, managed to gain 60 cents today. 

Leading the decliners were Apple Computer (AAPL), down 2.33; Baidu.com (BIDU), down 1.79; and Broadcom (BRCM), 1.46.  Other point-plus losers were Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), down 1.20, closing under 40; DXP Enterprises (DXPE), down 1; and Sierra Wireless (SWIR), down 1.18.

LMI Aerospace (LMIA) dropped 89 cents, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) 82 cents, and Rediff.com India (REDF) 71 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, while a pullback was not surprising based on last week's late rally, and I was expecting a much more subdued & potentially bullish looking retest. The sharpness and impulsiveness of today's decline does not augur well for prices unless they can stem the tide & rather quickly.

But it sure looks like they are going to do a much steeper retest, and perhaps a full test of the lows.

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.