The indices had a down day, but a late afternoon rally brought them back from the abyss and took back a large chunk of the dayââ,¬â"¢s losses.

The day started out with a move up at the opening, but then they had a morning pullback that held support at around 1626 NDX and at 1318 Ã,½ or so on the S&P.  They tried another rally that retested the highs but couldnââ,¬â"¢t get through, and when they rolled over they rolled over hard.

A strong sell-off ensued, taking the NDX from 1635 down to 1608 inside of an hour, and the S&P from 1321 to 1312 Ã,½ during the same time.  They then went into a 2-hour consolidation, which looked like bear flags, but despite those patterns they broke out to the upside late in the session and rallied into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was down just 14 points, and some 60 points off the lows.  The S&P 500 was down 2.87, some 8 points off the low, and the Nasdaq 100 down 11, but about 13 points off the low.  The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell 2.31 today, and was a large reason for the steep decline in the Nasdaq, but even that about 2 points off its low.

The technicals were 3 to 2 negative on New York on advance-declines and a like amount on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 9 to 5 negative with just under 1.5 billion traded on New York.  Nasdaq traded about 2 billion, and had a little less than 3 to 1 negative ratio on declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed to lower.  There were several point-plus losers.  Baidu.com (BIDU) dropped 3.86.  NVE Corp. (NVEC)  reversed strongly off of a new 52-week high, reaching just under 40 at one point, closing at 35.79, down 2.64.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) dropped 1.32, and U.S. Global Investors (GROW) gave back 1.09.

Other stocks of note on the downside, XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), lost 57 cents, Rambus (RMBS) 54 cents, Fuel Tech (FTEK) 52 cents, and Akamai (AKAM) 97 cents.

On the plus side, Hansen Natural Corp. (HANS) was up 2, Qualcomm (QCOM) 50 cents, All Scripts Healthcare (MDRX) 42 cents, FNET up 45 cents, and POZN up 41 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices broke hard in the morning, taking out moving averages and price support.  The rally back towards the end of the day brought them right back up to key overhead resistance.  Weââ,¬â"¢ll see if thereââ,¬â"¢s any follow-through tomorrow, but with the Fed meeting it could be a wild session.

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.