The stock market indices opened strong today and reached the session highs in the first 20 minutes, and from there it was downhill the rest of the day as the S&P 500 stair-stepped lower in a neat, orderly channel to retest yesterday’s lows. At that point they bounced a couple times, but couldn’t make any progress.

Net on the day, the Dow closed down 114.88 at 10,510.95, the S&P 500 down 16.14 at 1120.89, and Nasdaq 100 down 28.39 at 1887.06.

Advance-declines were better than 3 to 1 negative on both the New York Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 8 to 1 negative on New York and about 6 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Total volume on New York was about 1 1/2 billion and about 2 1/3 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly lower, except for the ultra-short ETFs, which had a stellar day. Leading the way was the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX), up 1.65 to 29.13. The Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares ETF (EDZ) was up 3.05 to 51.90, ProShares UltraShort Real Estate (SRS) up 1.34 to 27.94, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) up 1.22 to 14.99. Those were the only point-plus gainers on our board.

Other stocks of note, Vivus (VVUS) had a strong session, up 73 cents on 17 million shares and closed at 13.20. L&L Energy Inc. (LLEN) on strong earnings projections was up 42 cents to 10.15. Delcath Systems Inc. (DCTH) was up 46 cents to 15.15, and Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) jumped 1.28 to 9.46, a strong percentage gain.

On the downside, point-plus losers, which were many, included Google Inc. (GOOG), which dropped 9.60 to 498.37. Goldman Sachs lost 5.28 to 137.36, Amazon Inc. 2.63 to 126.28, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 1.86 to 252.36.

In addition, Baidu Inc. (BIDU) gave back 1.61 to 71.57, American International Group Inc. (AIG) 1.22 to 37.78, China Agritech Inc. (CAGC) in a weak Chinese sector 1.70 to 13.85, and China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) 47 cents to 18.85.

Houston American Energy Corp. (HUSA) in a soft oil group was down 1.21 to 10.13, and Mindspeed Technologies Inc. (MSPD) dropped 66 cents to 8.89.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up and reached their session highs early in the day, then stair-stepped their way lower all session, closing near the session lows and near key support. We’ll have to see whether tomorrow we get any downside follow-through or are able to hold support in this area and snap back.

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