The markets ended up with a very negative session despite the advance in the semiconductor SOX index today.  It sure did its best in the morning and mid-part of the session to keep the indices afloat but to no avail.  With the price of oil going through $61 a barrel, the market finally rolled over in the afternoon.

At the start of the session they opened lower, rallied immediately to test resistance and backed off again to retest support, which held.  The  Nasdaq 100 rallied with the support of the SOX index, but the S&P 500 and Dow pretty much went sideways in what looked like a bear flags.  That resulted in a decline that took out initial support on the S&P but held on the NDX.

A lunch-hour and post lunch-hour rally took the NDX to new rally highs, but right to last week's rally highs at resistance at around 1513.  At that point the S&P was barely at initial resistance and trailing badly.  That resulted in a very sharp sell-off in the afternoon that took the S&P down to 1200 and through 1198, and the NDX took out the 1500-01 support zone.

At that point they had a snapback try that failed at resistance and sold off into the lows for the day, and closed near the lows for the day going away.

The Dow was down more than 101, the S&P 500 down 10, the Nasdaq 100 8.30, but the SOX was up 4.46, although that was about 4 points off the earlier high.  It gave back about half its gains.

Technicals were negative by about 3 to 2 on both exchanges.  Up/down volume was a little more than 2 to 1 negative on New York.  Total volume was about 1.4 billion.  Nasdaq traded about 1.5 billion with about an 8 to 7 negative plurality on up/down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was very active.  There were some outstanding issues, although most of them gave back much of their gains.  However, Catuity (CTTY), last week's huge gainer which saw some end-of-week profit-taking, rebounded sharply again today, gaining more than 4 points on nearly 6 million shares.  However, that was about 1.75 off the high. 

Among other gainers, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) was up 41 cents but 2 points off its high.  JAMDAT Mobile (JMDT) was up 45 points and Parlux Fragrances (PARL) 87 cents, hitting a new all-time high this morning at 31.77.  CryptoLogic (CRYP) was up 39 cents and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) up a quarter.

On the losing side, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) lost 64 cents and Travelzoo (TZOO) 55 cents, but most other stocks were just fractionally changed on our board.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the indices broke key short-term support today and are going to be testing intermediate support on the S&P, which is down in the 1185-90 zone, perhaps as early as tomorrow.  Nasdaq 100 support, in the 1486-90 zone, may be tested tomorrow as well.

Very key short-term resistance to watch is today's highs at around 1513 on the Nasdaq 100, and the 1205-6 zone on the S&P 500.

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.