We had a fairly volatile session, but net on the day the indices closed down and near the lows for the day. They started out with a gap down on lower pre-market futures. They bounced and formed mini bear flags and certainly got another leg down when the bear flags broke. They moved sharply to the lows for the day in the morning, had a 3-leg rally back that reached the declining tops lines ,but failed at overhead resistance near 1790 NDX and 1426 S&P, and they then got a five-wave decline in the afternoon that lasted into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was down 97, the S&P 500 down 11 Ã,½ and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 19 Ã,½. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down just under 6 Ã,½.

The technicals were negative by 22 Ã,½ to 10 on advance-declines on New York and by 20 Ã,½ to 9 Ã,½ on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 Ã,½ to 1 on New York, with total volume of 1.45 billion. Nasdaq traded around 1 Ã,¾ billion and had nearly a 4 to 1 negative ratio on declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed. There were no point-plus gainers, although VYYO gained 97 cents today on 2.1 million. It’s now up about 125% in the last two weeks. Lumera Corp. (LMRA) had a strong session, up 36 cents on 5 Ã,½ million shares, although that was substantially off the earlier high. But the low-priced star of the day was Dendreon (DNDN), which traded more than 32 Ã,½ million shares, the heaviest volume in its history, closing up 5.22, up 60 cents on the session.

Other stocks of note, recently highlighted Chart of the Day Avici (AVCI) gained 45 cents today on 2.4 million.

On the downside, Boxer Shorts Bear Stearns (BSC) was down 1.29, Lehman Brothers (LEH) down 1.74, and Continental Airlines (CAL) 73 cents. Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD) dropped 95 cents, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) gave back 1.55, and Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) 84 cents.

But the leading loser by far on a downgrade was Sigma Designs (SIGM), which closed at 27.08, down 3.28 on nearly 2 Ã,¾ million shares today after a downgrade.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a sloppy and choppy session, and closed near the lows for the day going away on the Nasdaq 100, and a bit above them on the Dow and S&P. It was rather negative session, which could easily lead to further downside.

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.