The indices had a terrific start to the day with huge high pre-market futures . They gapped up big, ran briefly and then reached their highs for the day within 15 minutes of the opening. From there on it was all downhill.

The indices had a strong 5-wave down move, with the 5th wave being the sharpest and steepest in late afternoon. Only a last hour rally brought them back a little bit.

Still, the Dow was down 26.63 today after being up 246 at one point. So a huge negative reversal. It was about 318 points from top to bottom. The S&P 500 reversed from 1303 to 1272, a 31-point swing, and managed to bounce 5 points into the close, though was still down 5.26 on the day. The Nasdaq 100 was nearly 70 points off its high at its low, bounced into the close, but was still down 22.40 on the day. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) slid about 13 points off its high and closed down 2.45 on the day.

Advance-declines managed to stay positive on New York by about 260 issues and were flat on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 6 to 5 positive on New York on light total volume of 1.13 billion. Nasdaq traded close to 1.95 billion and had a ratio of 2 to 1 negative on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was definitely mixed today, but there were many more multiple point losers than gainers. Leading the way on the downside today was SunPower (SPWR), down 6.41, as the solar indices got hammered with the price of oil coming down. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) fell 4.48. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) was down 1.96, Solarfun (SOLF) 1.70 and JA Solar (JASO) 92 cents.

The shippers also got hammered. DryShips (DRYS) fell 4.66, Excel Maritime (EXM) 4.11, and TBS International (TBSI) 1.84.

Other stocks of note on the downside, Almost Family (AFAM) gave back 1.63, and the US Oil Fund ETF (USO) got clobbered for 3.78 on the drop in oil.

On the plus side, the DUG ultrashort oil & gas ETF, as you'd imagine with the sharp drop in oil, gained 3.47 to close at 38.08. The QID was up 1.05 on 46 3/4 million, and the SDS gained 77 cents.

Chart of the Week Converted Organics (COIN) advanced 93 cents today, extending its recent gains. Fannie Mae (FNM) came back a dollar in the last 45 minutes, and closed up 59 cents on the day on 99 million shares, and Chart of the Week TACT at 12.92 was up 67 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices ran up to declining tops lines at the top of the declining channel of the last couple weeks, and then rolled over hard on the S&P, reaching previous couple rally highs, failing there as well, and sold off sharply. But the NDX was the one that really got hammered today, going from the top of its 2-week down-channel to the bottom of it during today's session.

Key support down in the 1820-22 zone and then around the 1800 level will be watched next. But, more importantly, the S&P 500 triple bottom around the 1260-62, a key support area, will be monitored closely tomorrow for a potential breakdown.

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.