The stock market had a strong start and another terrible finish and closed at the lows for the day going away with steep losses across the board in a very disappointing session, to say the least. The lows were taken out on the Nasdaq 100, while the S&P 500 hasn't quite done that yet though will likely be testing the lows early tomorrow.

The day started out with a move up, but then a quick sell-off took place. They stabilized late in the morning, went sideways, tried to break out on the NDX, actually did briefly but couldn't confirm on the SPX and rolled over and sold off for the rest of the session. Late in the day they tried a bounce for about 10-15 minutes that failed to follow through, and they rolled over into the close, ending, as mentioned, at the lows for the day going away.

Net on the day the Dow was down 280, the S&P 500 down 43 1/4, and the Nasdaq 100 a whopping 41.40. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 11.55, or nearly 4 percent today.

The technicals were extremely negative, almost climactic in nature. Advance-declines were nearly 2800 down and less than 400 up on New York, or about a 7 to 1 negative ratio, and 23 down to 5 up on Nasdaq, or about a 5 1/2 to 1 negative ratio. Up/down volume was more than 10 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 1 2/3 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 2 2/3 billion and had a negative ratio of about 14 to 1 .

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, with many multiple-point losses. Leading the way to the downside was Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), which got slam-dunked for 8.86, closing at 53.05, not far off the low. That stock is now down 30 points in the last 8 trading days.

Shippers took it on the chin today, with DryShips (DRYS) down 5.93 and Excel Maritime (EXM) 4.52. Solars sold off as well, with Canadian Solar (CSIQ) closing at 21.34, down 5.27. JA Solar (JASO) got hammered back down 12.08, down 2.47, and Solarfun (SOLF) at 11.60 was down 1.82.

Among other losing issues, Vision China Media (VISN) at 15.10 was down 2.86, Fuel System Solutions (FSYS) at 46.49 was down 2.85, Focus Media (FMCN) at 25.82 was down 1.94, and A-Power Energy (APWR) at 14.67 fell 1.93.

But the financials got the worst of it today, with Lehman (LEH) getting hammered, rallying back sharply and then falling to even lower lows, closing at 7.79, down 6.36 on 377 million shares, more than a third of a billion traded on Lehman. Mortgage company ABK closed at 7, down 1.82, and Washington Mutual (WM) at 3.30 was down 82 cents.

On the plus side, Cardica (CRDC), one of our old favorites, jumped 2.06 on 1.9 million, closing at 10.05, on approval of one of its drugs by the FDA. Chart of the Week Converted Organics (COIN) had an excellent day, closing up 42 cents to 6.40, showing excellent relative strength on a day like this.

The DUG had one of its best days of the year, up 5.57 to 46.29 on the sharp drop in oil. The SDS short instrument was up 4.19 and the QID up 1.57.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, it was a very negative session for the indices, as key short-term support was broken on the Nasdaq 100, but the Dow and S&P 500, despite not making new lows, suffered steep losses as well.

So we'll see if this continues tomorrow. We are getting into oversold territory on the NDX, but the blue chip indices appear to have room to drop further and we may have another day or two on the downside before we can get a substantial snapback rally.

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.