The indices had a definitive down-day but were tempered by a last 20-minute snapback rally that brought them substantially off the lows. Still, on the day the indices were all lower, some of them substantially.

The day started out with a gap up to new highs. They rolled over hard, came down very sharply in the morning, bounced late morning to mid-day, and then resumed the slide in the afternoon. The market reached its session low with about an hour and a half to go and then retested shortly thereafter, which may be what triggered the late rally.

Net on the day the Dow was down 102.43 to 8409.85, and the S&P 500 down 12.14 to 907.39, which was 22 points off the high. The Nasdaq 100 was down 34.02 at 1389.83, and 42 points off its high. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) dropped 16.06 to 254.55, a loss of more than 6 percent.

The technicals were negative by 2 to 1 on advance-declines on New York and a like amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was worse than 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of just under 2 billion. Nasdaq traded under 3.2 billion and had a 4 to 1 negative volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was almost all lower except for the ultrashorts. One junior biotech was higher, Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA), which exploded on the FDA's approval of their schizophrenia drug. Closing yesterday at 1.08, it reached a high today of 11 in the pre-market and 10 in the regular session, closing at 7.84, up 6.76 on the session on 10 1/2 million shares.

The UltraShort Financial ProShares (SKF) rallied 6 points off its low, closing up 2.30 on the day to 45.30. The UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) rallied 4 points off its low, closing up 2.34 to 23.16 on nearly 50 million traded. The TZA rallied nearly 4 points off its low, and closed up 1.71 at 27.83.

Bank of America (BAC) managed to gain 82 cents today at 13.51, but that was down from more than 15 earlier in the day, and most financials had a real negative reversal session. Goldman Sachs (GS) dropped from 141, closing at 133.73, down 5.49. Wells Fargo (WFC) at 4 points off its high closed at 24.77, down 2.07 on 222 million.

JP Morgan (JPM) fell 1.98 at 34.24, and Morgan Stanley (MS) was down 1.37 at 27.14.

Apple (AAPL) lost 3.44 to 129.06, Amazon (AMZN) was down 2.71 to 79.28, and Research in Motion (RIMM) 3.71 to 73.36.

Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) had a very bad session, down 4 to 15.88. Dendreon (DNDN) gave back 1.06 to 19.76, and DG FastChannel (DGIT), on lower earnings, got hammered down to 17.21, but managed to snapback more than 2 points to 19.31, still closed down 2.46 on the day.

The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) lost 1.08 to 34.35, and iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) 1.21 to 49.35.

The Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS), getting as high as 13.27 in the morning, was down 1 to 10.43, a big negative reversal on 330 million shares. The Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) managed to close up 43 cents, after reversing more than 1.20, on a record 517 million shares.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices broke hard in the morning, slid for most of the session, snapped back late in the session to pare the losses, and definitely broke the short-term trend on the Nasdaq 100 -- price, moving average and trendline support -- but have not done so yet on the S&P 500.

We'll be looking for a move below the SPX 898-900 level, which held today with a 901.36 low. So, in order to get a confirmation and indicate a top may be in, we'll have to get some downside follow-through tomorrow.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.