The markets had a down day. They started off lower, but did rally initially and actually went to nominal new highs, but when there was no follow-through they sold off rather sharply, testing secondary support successfully after taking out initial support. Then they rallied mid-day to resistance, failed and rolled over, but made higher lows on the Nasdaq 100 despite the new lows on the S&P 500 in the afternoon, which was non-confirming. That caused a last-hour snapback, but it looked corrective in nature, and the market drifted higher into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 49 Ã,¾, the S&P 500 was down about 5 1/2, and the Nasdaq 100 down 2.64. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was off 2.32.

Advance-declines were negative by 5 to 3 negative on New York and by about 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little bit more than 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume there of about 1.95 billion. Nasdaq traded a little more than that but under 2 billion on option expiration day.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed. However, a couple outstanding issues today included DXP Enterprises (DXPE), one of our old favorites, which jumped 6 Ã,¼ on excellent earnings. Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) had another strong session but came way off the highs, at one point advancing as much as 5 Ã,½ points, but closing up 1.47 on the day on 43 million. It actually closed just 20 cents off the low for the day.

Chindex (CHDX) advanced 90 cents, closing at 16. Halozyme Therapeutics (HTI) jumped 44 cents, and Sigma Designs (SIGM) 49 cents.

On the downside, stocks we added to our model portfolio this week as “Boxer Shorts” fell sharply. Bear Stearns (BSC) was down 3.02, Lehman Brothers (LEH) down 1.84, Morgan Stanley (MS) off 48 cents, and Continental Airlines (CAL) down 77 cents.

Other than that, most stocks on our board to the downside were off just fractions. Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) fell 53 cents and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 40 cents, along with Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) down 57 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a downward bias today but not too bad. Despite the fact that initial support was taken out, they weren’t able to thrust to the downside beyond that, but still had a down day on options expiration to close the week out.

We’ll see if they manage to take this 2-day consolidation off of Wednesday’s big move, and take out resistance at 1750 NDX and 1798 on the S&P. Those are the levels we’ll be watching on Monday for upside penetration.

On the downside, support at 1733-34 NDX and 1384 S&P are short-term critical.

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.