The markets had a very sloppy mixed day today and another very weak morning, but the afternoon was quite different from yesterday. 

The day started out with a gap up based on strong futures and some good earnings reports last night.  But within minutes the indices headed south and in a hurry.  The Nasdaq dropped from 1721 to 1697 in less than an hour, and the S&P which tagged new multi year rally highs today at just under 1373, sold off quickly to 1363 in that same time frame.  They did try a morning bounce, then rolled over again and made lower lows by early afternoon on the Nasdaq 100, taking out yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s lows, but the S&P and Dow did not.  That resulted in another rally try in the afternoon that then faded into a slow consolidation over the last hour or so.

Net on the day, the Dow did manage to gain 42 Ã,½ ,just 7 Ã,½ points under 12,000, although it reached near 12,050 earlier in the session, again tagging new all-time highs today.  The S&P 500 made new 5 Ã,½-year highs this morning, but backed off to close up 1.90 on the day, after being up as much as nearly 9.  The Nasdaq 100 was down nearly 9 points today and closed some 21 points off its earlier high.  That was mostly due to the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which was down 13 points today, or a little less than 3 percent. 

That does not augur well for the markets, as the semiconductor group often leads the market.

Technicals were positive by 18 to 14 on New York and negative by about 60 issues on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 8 to 7 negative on New York, and 13 to 8 negative on Nasdaq.  Volume on New York was 1.56 billion and on Nasdaq was 2.13 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with very few stocks up or down by more than a point.  The leader today by far was low-priced biotech stock SIGA, which announced a smallpox drug and bounced nearly 3 points right at the opening, before backing off later in the session.  It was still up 2.57 on the day on 39 million shares, more than twice the float and than 150 times the average daily trade.  Amazing day there for that stock.

On the downside, II-VI, Inc. (IIVI) set a new all-time high this morning over 28 and then backed off a couple points and closed at 26.40, down 1.35.  Those were the only point-plus gainers or losers

Other gainers of note, Sigma Designs (SIGM) hit a new 13-year high just under 20, but backed off to close at 19, up 70 cents today.  Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) advanced another 40 cents today.  The SMH was up 84 cents, and Broadcom (BRCM) 80 cents.

But most other gainers on our board were up just small fractions.

On the downside, Oralab (OLAB) gave back 90 cents, Rambus (RMBS) 66 cents, Simpletech (STEC) 94 cents, Service Acquisition Corp(SVI) 45 cents, U.S. Global Investors (GROW) 59 cents, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) 50 cents, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 65 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, on the positive side the S&P 500 sold off but held its 6-day rising bottoms line and its 40-day moving averages on the hourly charts.  The NDX, on the other hand, made lower lows and took out key support at 1700-01 and closed right near there.

So weââ,¬â"¢ll see if thereââ,¬â"¢s any downside follow-through by the chip stocks and the Nasdaq 100, in particular, and whether that drags the blue chips, or whether the blue chips can create the opposite effect and pull the SOXX and NDX out of their short-term doldrums.

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.