The glow is coming off yesterday's huge Fed rate cut. Just as I expected, the market gave back much of yesterday's huge gains.

Investors sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 293 points, or 2.36%, to 12,099.66, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 58.30, or 2.57%, to 2,209.66 and the S&P 500 tumbled 32.32, or 2.43%, to 1298.42. Market watchers, who were jubilant yesterday, were downright depressed today.

"This whole market is driven by fear right now,'' James Gaul, a portfolio manager at Boston Advisors LLC told Bloomberg News. "Investors are thinking more and more this will be a long and drawn out recession, and that pulls down commodity prices and energy prices.''

"Clearly there is fear. I would say the needle is pointing more toward fear than greed right now," said
George Shipp, chief investment officer at Scott & Stringfellow, in an interview with the Associated Press.

O.K, we get the picture. People are scared. Fear rules the day.

That's the case for now, but the funny thing is this fear will not last. The slightest good news will send the market skyward yet again.

You can get whiplash watching this market rise and fall.

After a major run-up that began in earnest this past summer, the Nasdaq 100 index peaked relative to the Nasdaq Composite index about six weeks ago. The large cap-laden NDX then staged a short but sharp correction.

More recently, however, the ratio has bounced back and is once again nearing resistance at the October highs. The shares of larger companies have no doubt been boosted by stampeding institutions anxious to put money to work in what appears to be an early "Santa Claus" rally.

Still, given how circumstances panned out previously, it may be time to look for another pullback in the Nasdaq 100 in comparison to the broader technology-based index.

One way to play it (depending on risk tolerance): buy the Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index Tracking Stock ETF (NASDAQ: ONEQ) and sell (or sell short) the Powershares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ: QQQQ).

Michael Panzner is a 25-year veteran of the global stock, bond, and currency markets and the author of Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes and The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle.

Technical analysis involves moving averages, retracement levels, well-defined zones of historical support/resistance ... in other words, lines in the proverbial sand that often help make sense of the various market machinations.

It's after 4:00 and we've all been saved by the bell, if a little worse for wear. But heck, a 9% drop like the Shanghai Composite endured would have taken the Dow Industrials (INDU) south of the 11,500 mark. As Sarah pointed out moments ago, the Dow's drop on this late-winter Tuesday will likely end up being no big deal.

That said, let's take a quick look at some technical trickery. The NASDAQ Composite (COMP) gave back nearly 97 points today and closed below its 10-week and 20-week moving averages. These trendlines had worked in tandem to support the tech-rich index since mid-August. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) violated its respective 10-week and 20-week trendlines as well, and closed below the 1,400 mark for the first time since December 1. The S&P 100 Index ended the day at its worst level since early November and broke free of a stifling trading range that had been in place since the start of 2007. And the Dow also breached its 10-week and 20-week trendlines, testing the 12,200 mark for the first time in nearly three months.

Over the past few weeks I have seen a bit of skepticism showered on the technology sector. As was noted in a Bloggingstocks post earlier this month, Jim Cramer offered some cautious comments on the group, saying that many stocks were "off limits". I then saw this BusinessWeek article that says Standard & Poor's is calling for a potential 7% to 10% correction in the Nasdaq Composite.

To be sure, this hasn't been a good couple of weeks for individual tech stocks. Companies such as Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD), Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), and Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) have all seen their stocks hit. Some posted lower-than-expected earnings, some warned, and some saw selling despite seemingly decent results. Each stock drop has helped to weigh on the collective psyche of investors. In other words, each individual sell off has fed into the skepticism expressed above.