The market started the day on a bad note, with sharply lower futures. They opened lower, and did bounce in the first hour in what looked like bear-flag formations, particularly on the S&P 500. They rolled over hard late morning, and for the rest of the day stair-stepped lower, accelerating into the close and closing at the lows for the day going away.

The markets had a strong start to the week on less-than-desirable overall volume. Nevertheless, it was an up-day with decent technicals.

The indices had a solid up-session with confirming technicals, but the afternoon sell-off certainly gave back a chunk of the gains, and made it a disappointing session at best. But an up-day is an up-day.

The indices ended on a down note, closing near the afternoon lows and the lows of the session in what I would call a very poor follow-up to yesterday’s rally.

Another down day to start the week. That makes six consecutive days since the top, and the NDX has now dropped from over 1850 to down near 1711. The S&P 500 in the same period has dropped from 1462 down to 1374, a drop of 6-7% losses just in the last six days.

The indices closed out the week with another solid loss, with the Nasdaq 100 closing at the low for the week going away.

The indices had a similar day today as yesterday in terms of the patterns. They opened lower, this time much more sharply lower than yesterday, similar to what we had on Tuesday, but after only nominal new lows beyond that, they then rallied very sharply in the morning, similar to yesterday, pulled back and meandered sideways in a trading range for the rest of the session, just like yesterday.

The market did snap back today, but I would say rather unimpressively. The Dow, for example, only took back 1/8 of yesterday’s losses. The S&P 500 took back about 1/7 and the NDX about 1/10.

To say the least, the market had an extreme turnaround Tuesday. The indices opened lower on sharply lower pre-market futures, tried to bounce in the first half hour, formed bear flags and went lower all day, accelerated in the afternoon, and with about an hour to go they bounced sharply but then backed off and took back about 50% of the rally in the last half hour or so.

The market started the week on a down note. Losses were much deeper at mid-day. An afternoon rally brought the indices back, gaining about 40-50% of their earlier losses.