The sell-off that started Friday morning continued and lasted all day Monday.  There were several rally attempts which failed at intraday resistance.  The indices were particularly weak in the afternoon when they rolled over and sold off steadily and sharply and ended at the lows for the day going away.

Net on the day, the Dow was down nearly 100, the S&P 500 nearly 16, the Nasdaq 100 30.66, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) down about 8 1/2.

The technicals were very negative by 26 to 7 advance-declines on New York and 24 1/2 to 6 on Nasdaq, or about 4 to 1. Up/down volume was even worse, about 9 to 1 negative on New York and about 11 to 1 negative on Nasdaq, almost climactic-type numbers.

TheTechTrader.com board  was extremely negative for the most part, except for two stocks.  CHNR, one of our Charts of the Week, was up 50 cents, although that was about 1.30 off the earlier high when it was up 1.80 earlier in the morning.  Broadcom (BRCM) advanced 26 cents, snapping back from recent losses, but gave back about 70 cents of its earlier gains.

For the most part, our board ran red today, led by DXP Enterprises (DXPE) down 3.57 and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) down 3.04 to a new 2006 low.  Apple Computer (AAPL) lost 2.24, Baidu.com (BIDU) 2.41, Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) 1.88 to a new 2 1/2-month low, PW Eagle (PWEI) 1.15 and MED down 1.18, with Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) giving back 1.58 and Zevex (ZVXI) down 1.30, getting hammered in the afternoon.

Other stocks of note, Rediff.com India (REDF) lost 89 cents, and the Qs (QQQQ) were down 75 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the significance of today's action was that the Nasdaq 100 closed at a new 2006 low, and is just a few points away from testing the October 2005 intermediate low.  The S&P 500 closed at the lows for the day going away, but just above the 1535 level reached last Thursday's at the spike low.

The Nasdaq 100 is now down 200 points just since the first week of May, the last five weeks.  The S&P 500 is down about 90 points in the same period of time.

So, today saw a full retest of the lows on the blue chips and a takeout on the NDX, and the bear trend continues.

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.