The markets finally gave it up and slid sharply lower at the end of the day, closing at the lows for the day going away. However, the day started out with a little move off the opening, a sharp move down that tested support, and then a sharp rebound that took the Nasdaq 100 to new multi-year highs. But the S&P failed to confirm, and they sold off steeply by mid-day, took a sharp rebound back to test intraday moving averages and failed, and finally rolled over very sharply with the Nasdaq 100 dropping from 1943 to 1923, 20 points in the last couple hours. The S&P 500 rolled over from 1529 to 1512 and change.

Net on the day the Dow was down 146, the S&P 500 nearly 21 and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 20. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 3.22.

The technicals confirmed the negative day today with 26 to 7 decliners over advancers on New York, a real steep negative majority, and 22 to 8 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was also extremely negative, about 4 to 1 negative on the NYSE, with volume increasing to nearly 1.7 billion. Nasdaq traded over 2 billion today and had about a 3 1/2 to 1 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, however, was pretty narrowly mixed except for a few issues. Leading the way by far was an old favorite FuelTek (FTEK), which exploded through multi-month resistance on major news of a contract in China. The stock gained 5.28 today on 3 Ã,½ million shares, which is huge volume for that stock.

There were no other significant gainers on our board, although DXP Enterprises (DXPE) did advance 71 cents and Cree (CREE) 49 cents. Global Solutions (GSOL) gained 30 cents and Metabolix (MBLX) 31 cents.

On the downside, VASCO Data Security (VDSI) gave back 1.03, and Force Protection (FRPT) lost 1.79. PRG-Schultz International (PRGX) fell 52 cents, and MEDTOX Scientific (MTOX), after a strong early morning, reversed into negative territory, closing down 79 cents. Transcend Services (TRCR) gave back 97 cents, and Ceragon Networks (CRNT) 43 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, a significant break occurred today as the indices broke down through price and moving average support on the hourly charts and closed at the lows for the day going away and near secondary support.

One thing the market has failed to have much of lately is a downside follow-through of more than a day or two, so we’ll see if we can get some additional downside tomorrow at some deeper levels. But today was a significant afternoon sell-off.

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.