The Nasdaq had five separate swings today.  The S&P did as well but the swings were more muted.  But, at the end of the day they backed off with the blue chips closing at the morning lows and session lows. The Nasdaq did make a higher low at the end of the day, but still closed down on the session.

At the end, the Dow was down 75, the S&P 7 1/4, the Nasdaq 100 a little more than 7 and the SOX Index down about 1.50 after being up most of the session.

The technicals were mixed  -- slightly positive on advance-declines on New York and slightly negative on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 8 to 5 negative on New York on volume of about 1.45 billion.  Nasdaq traded a little less than 1.6 billion, with about a 9 to 7 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was very active despite the down-day.  There were many gainers today, led once again by Dynamic Materials (BOOM), which made another new all-time high today at over 44.  It closed at 43.80, up 3 1/2 points on more than 4 million shares. 

Other stocks of note, JAMDAT Mobile (JMDT), highlighted as a Chart of the Week a few weeks ago in the high teens, traded over 28 today, up 1.47.  Able Energy (ABLE), which three days ago was trading under 13, was as high as 20.80, closing at 19, up more than 1.50 on nearly 4 3/4 million shares.  Air T (AIRT) was up 62 cents, aQuantive (AQNT) up 65 cents, Medicore (MDKI) up 50 cents, and NovAtel (NGPS) 65 cents.

Nearly all the large-cap stocks we follow on our board were down, including Broadcom (BRCM), Juniper Networks (JNPR), QLogic (QLGC) and Intel (INTC).  Blue chips had a much weaker day than Nasdaq did.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, despite the late sell-off, Nasdaq remains above key short-term support around 1540.  That's an area we'll be watching tomorrow.  S&P 500 key support is around the 1185-86 area.  It closed today at around 1192, but it'll be testing the rising moving averages on the hourly charts probably early tomorrow morning and we'll see if they hold or not.

Good trading!

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.