The stock market had quite a volatile day and ended near the lows for the session. But the day started out with a slight firming, a sharp pullback that held support, and a very strong half-hour rally that took the Nasdaq 100 to its highs for the day. The S&P 500 did manage to make a higher high later in the day that was not confirmed. After they pulled back, they rallied again through those highs, but the failure to confirm by the Nasdaq 100 caused the market to roll over in a sharp sell-off that lasted several hours.

With about an hour to go they bounced, failed at resistance and pulled back near the lows for the day.

Net on the day the Dow was still up 37, but nearly 100 points off its high. The S&P 500 was down about 2 points after being up as much as 11. The Nasdaq 100 reversed from 1898 to 1870, closing at 1871 and change, down 16.29, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which was fairly soft all day, ended about a point off the low, down 6 on the session. That put pressure on the NDX all session.

The technicals were negative by 5 to 3 on advance-declines on New York and about 2 Ã,½ to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 1.6 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.17 billion and had a more than 4 to 1 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative, led today by JA Solar (JASO), down 2.30 on 5 million shares. Synalloy (SYNL) dropped 1.53, and LJ International (JADE), one of our Charts of the Week, got hammered, particularly late in the session, down 1.20. FuelTek (FTEK) lost 1.06.

Boxer Short Akamai Technologies (AKAM) dropped 1.97 and American Healthcare (AHS) backed off 37 cents, both breaking bearish-looking flag patterns.

USA Technologies (USAT) dropped under 10, closing down 92 cents. OSI Systems (OSIS) gave back 69 cents from yesterday’s gains. Research Frontiers (REFR), a portfolio position, was down 47 cents. Metabolix (MBLX) was down 69 cents. GigaMedia (GIGM), also a portfolio position, fell 47 cents, Force Protection (FRPT) gave back 95 cents from recent gains as well. And portfolio position DG FastChannel (DGIT) also lost 55 cents. Dendreon (DNDN) closed not far off the lows for the day on 22 Ã,½ million shares, down 49 cents.

On the plus side, thinly traded ATEA jumped from the get-go on an excellent earnings report and soared as high as 9.33 before closing at 8.05, up 2.43 on more than 3 million, very heavy volume for that stock.Color Kinetics (CLRK) broke out to new all time highs & closed up $2.44. DXP Enterprises (DXPE) gained 1.29, and MEDTOX Scientific (MTOX) was up 1.74. Those were by far the gainers on our board and among just a few.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, 4-week trendlines were broken on the Nasdaq 100 and so was last week’s lows. There’s a series of lower lows and lower highs on the Nasdaq 100 that has been established, although not been confirmed by the S&P yet. The S&P, despite making nominal new 7-year highs today, basically double-topped. That was quickly reversed and they closed near the lows for the day.

Ominous-looking topping patterns are currently in force. We’ll see if we get any downside extension and confirmation from the S&P in the next several days.

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.