It was not a pretty day for the market. The indices ended at the lows for the session going away. But it was a lot different in the morning.

After a back and forth action where the market dipped early, it then had a strong pop this morning. The Nasdaq 100 dropped down to about the 1523-24 support zone and then rallied strongly to 1538. The S&P managed to move from about 1214 support level back up to near resistance around 1219-20.

But they failed to break through both of those levels and the market backed off solidly into the end of the lunch hour, at which point the indices attempted a rally and on several occasions tried to break through 1530 NDX but couldn't. The S&P failed to get through the 1214-15 area, and in the last hour they sold off again, closing at the lows for the session.

The Dow was down 107 to 10,805. The S&P was down 12.42 to 1207. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 12.26 to 2061, and the 100 fell 6 2/3 to about 1522. The SOX Index was off 1 point today, but it was about 5 points higher earlier in the session.

Reviewing the technicals, advance-declines were very negative on New York by 13 to 3, a ratio we haven't seen in quite a while. Up/down volume was a little less than 4 to 1 negative, but total volume was lighter with about 1 1/3 billion traded. Nasdaq had about 1.6 billion traded, with about a 2 to 1 negative ratio. Advance-declines were also 2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed. Among the gainers of note, BOOM exploded earlier in the day for 4 points ,but gave back 2 of them to close up 1.90 on the day. MDRX was ahead 84 cents, and WLM, one of our recent Charts of the Week, made a new multi-year high, closing up 35 cents. FCEL was up 24 cents, and there was nothing else to speak of on the plus side.

On the downside, DCAI gave back another 1.42, APLX got hammered for 94 cents, WIND was off 44 cents, and IMAX 37 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the sell-off of the last 3 days continued and we closed at the lows for the session. The Nasdaq 100 is now near its 2-week rising trendline, and the S&P closed down just beneath the 1209-10 support level.

So it's critical that the market hold in this area and reverse, or we're going to see much steeper losses.

Good trading!

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.