The market did snap back today, but I would say rather unimpressively. The Dow, for example, only took back 1/8 of yesterday’s losses. The S&P 500 took back about 1/7 and the NDX about 1/10.

So it was a pretty unimpressive day, particularly after the sharp morning snapback rally.

The day started out with a move down to test the lows and slightly took them out on the NDX, but at that point the S&P 500 did not make a new low. The positive divergence set up a sharp rally. But the rest of the day was spent in a meandering sideways channel, with the NDX in a 10-point range between 1760 and 1770, and the S&P bouncing between 1405 and 1412, both closing at the low end of those range at the end of the day.

Net on the day the Dow was up 52, the S&P 500 7 3/4, the Nasdaq 100 5.3, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 0.69 today.

Technicals were positive by 5 to 3 on advance-declines on New York and just 8 to 7 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume, however, 9 to 5 positive on New York and about 12 to 7 positive on Nasdaq. Total volume on New York was more than 1.4 billion, and Nasdaq was about 1.95 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, mostly narrowly so. There were some point-plus gainers, which included Chinese hotelier Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN), which snapped back 1.66. Global Sources (GSOL) was up 1.29, CBLI gained 1.74, Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) up 1.18, and Sigma Designs (SIGM) back up 1.12, taking back about half of yesterday’s losses.

Other stocks of note, Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) was up 51 cents, Nymox (NYMX) 42 cents, and the US Oil Trust (USO) 1.22.

On the downside, there were just fractional losses across the board.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, as indicated they did halt the steep declines of yesterday. However, this morning’s rally was followed by a meandering, consolidating action for the rest of the session. We’ll see if that turns out to be a platform for higher prices, or whether it’s just a pause that refreshes before we go lower.

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.