The indices ended down on the session, with most of the damage done early in the morning.  They gapped down at the opening on overnight news from Korean of missile testing, and the indices dropped sharply in the morning, reaching the lows for the session just before lunch hour.  At that point, they meandered upwards in a slow, tedious and corrective looking rally that failed at resistance and sold off in the last hour. 

On the day the Dow was down 76, the S&P was down 9 1/3, the Nasdaq 100 32.30, with the SOX down more than 14, contributing largely to the NDX decline.

Advance/declines were decidedly negative, by 24 1/2 to 9 on the New York Stock Exchange, and 21 to 9 1/2 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 3 to 1 negative on the NYSE, with total volume there just over 1.4 billion.  Nasdaq traded over 1.55 billion but had a decidedly negative plurality of about 6 1/2 to 1 negative today.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed but mostly negative.  On the down side, loss leaders were Baidu.com (BIDU) down $1.90, The India Fund (IFN) $1.41, PW Eagle (PWEI) $1.69, Qualcomm  (QCOM) $1.29, and Dynamic Materials (BOOM) $1.08.

On the plus side, Travelzoo (TZOO) soared today, up $3.29 on more than 2.1 million shares, by far the leader on my board.  Rambus (RMBS) gained $1.53,  Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) $0.93, but the percentage gain leader today was Micron (MIKR), one of our Charts of the Week this week, up $1.57, to a new 18-month high.

Other gains of note, ZEVEX International (ZVXI) gained $0.95 to a new, all-time high, Simclar (SIMC) gained $0.63, and low-priced Dendreon, gained $0.26, closing at $5.00, on more than 4 million shares, the heaviest volume in seven months.

Stepping back and reviewing  the hourly chart patterns,  the indices immediately broke two-day support this morning and tested secondary support before bouncing.  We'll see if the 1550-52 support zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1265-66 area on the S&P can hold tomorrow.  If not, we'll be looking at tests of the 1538-40 zone on the NDX and possibly as low as 1260-62 on the S&P.

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.