The market had a negative session, but did have a late rally that pared back the losses. 

The day started out with a big gap down.  They then went sharply lower after that down-gap and had a very negative morning, with the majority of the losses for the day in the first hour.  They had a mid-morning snapback rally that looked very corrective and bearish, and sure enough they rolled over starting around lunch hour, and went to two new lows on the Nasdaq 100.  Each of those new lows were not equaled by the S&P, and that positive divergence resulted in the late sharp rally, as indicated.  Only in the last 5-10 minutes did the indices back off the rally highs.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 60, the S&P 500 5 3/4, the Nasdaq 100 24 1/2, and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) down 8 Ã,¼.

The technials were negative by 5 to 3 on advance-declines on New York and 2 Ã,½ to 1 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was also quite negative, moreso on Nasdaq where it was 6 Ã,½ to 1 negative.  It was only 2 to 1 negative on New York.  Total volume was about 1.6 billion on New York and 1 2/3 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, with a bit more losers than gainers.  The loss leader by far today was Zevex (ZVXI), which came out with good earnings but cautioned investors about future growth, and the stock dropped 4.39 on over 900,000 shares, heavy volume for that stock and a large percentage loss.

Other point-plus losers were Akamai (AKAM) down 1.22, Broadcom (BRCM) 1.08, Hansen Natural Corp. (HANS) 1.01, and NVE Corp. (NVEC) which reversed 3 points from its morning rally high and closed down 1.60.

Other losses of note, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) down 1.01, Smith Micro (SMSI) was down 84 cents, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) off 82 cents, and Baidu.com (BIDU) 99 cents.

The SMH also dropped 86 cents.

On the plus side, the GLD gold tracking stock was up 1.22 with the large gain in gold today. DXP Enterprises (DXPE) gained 76 cents, Key Tronic (KTCC) 46 cents, OMNI Energy (OMNI) 9 cents, PW Eagle (PWEI) 60 cents, Simpletech (STEC) 27 cents, and RadioShack (RSH) 13 cents, all current or recent Charts of the Week.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, todayââ,¬â"¢s plunge took out key support right at the opening and led to the steep morning losses.  Key secondary support at 1475 on the NDX did hold, as did 1266 support on the S&P.  But those levels need to be watched carefully, and a violation of those levels could lead to much sharper losses.

On the upside, current resistance is in the 1495-1500 zone on the NDX and the 1274-76 zone on the S&P.  Thatââ,¬â"¢s what weââ,¬â"¢ll be watching tomorrow.

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.