We hope none of you were relying on the technology sector to lead this cyclical bull market - tech has been anything but impressive for as far back as a year. In fact, going back 52 weeks, the technology sector is the single-worst performer of all the major sectors. And try as we might, we just can't find any viable hints of rotation back into the sector.

We did, however, manage to find out one of the major reasons why the tech sector - as a whole - was suffering. Care to find out which industry is to blame?

How would you feel about an industry whose underlying stocks lost 13.7% while the S&P 500 gained 5.1%? The numbers alone tell us a lot of what we need to know. The chart tells us the rest.

OK, enough suspense. The computer storage stocks are to blame. The term computer storage may also be categorized as disc drives, or other lingo, but they all fall into the same basic bucket, and it's a bucket you may not want to be carrying. Take a look at the AMEX Disc Drive Index (DDX) below.

There's really not a lot of commentary to offer. The intermediate-term resistance line (red) is clear, as is the recent cross back under the 200-day moving average (green). We're interpreting those at face value.

As for where it all might stop, let's use last year's low of 132 as a starting point. That's about 13 points below (-9%) current trading levels. If that line fails to hold the index up, then a revisit of 110 isn't out of the question. That was the launchpad for the last quarter of that year. Both of those support lines are marked in red (dashed).

AMEX Disc Drive Index (DDX) - Weekly


Just to illustrate the short-term swing opportunity, let's look at a daily chart as well. It's here we can determine an optimal stop on our bearish bias. The 200-day line at 152 might be too far away, while the falling resistance line at 147 might be too tight. Splitting the difference leaves us right around 150, or 3.5% above the current reading.

AMEX Disc Drive Index (DDX) - Daily


There's no ETF directly correlated with disc drives or storage, though you might find a handful of 'hardware' funds. You will find, however, plenty of major names that fall into this category. Seagate (STX) and SanDisk (SNDK) are two notable stocks in this group. Western Digital (WDC) and Komag (KOMG) are in the bearish groove as well. EMC Corporation (EMC) seems to be defying the overall downtrend - as is Brocade (BRCD). Round out the last with Iomega (IOM), Hutchinson (HTCH), and Adeptec (ADPT).

Note that several of the stocks in this group are moving higher, though the aggregate is moving lower.

Price Headley is the founder and chief analyst of BigTrends.com.