The stock market indices hit the skids on Friday as fears from Europe and bad jobs report numbers sent the market sharply and steadily lower all session.

The indices started out with a big gap down as futures were sharply lower. They did try a bounce back that failed right near 1880 on the Nasdaq 100, and just under 1090 on the S&P 500. At that point they started a slow, steady slide all day that was unabated, and only a last few minutes bounce prevented them from closing right at the session lows. Still, it was a very nasty decline.

Net on the day, the Dow was down hugely by 323.31 to 9931.97, reaching as low as 9890 earlier. The S&P 500 fell 37.95 to 1064.88, about 4 1/2 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 was down 63.62 to 1832.04, a loss of 3 1/2 percent and about 8 points off its low.

Advance-declines were more than 9 to1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange with 292 up and 2804 down. Nasdaq was 304 to 2380. Up/down volume, however, was the story today, with only 12.4 million shares up and 1.6 billion shares down. That’s the worst ratio I’ve ever seen. Nasdaq had more than 2 1/4 billion shares to the downside and just 71 million to the upside. Horrendous ratio there as well.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was nearly 100 percent lower today, except for one stock, Competitive Technologies Inc. (CTT), which was up a nickel to 3.15. Other than that, everything was down, except the ultra-shorts, of course.

Starting with those, the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) was up 5.02 to 53.25, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) up 2.89 to 31.29, and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) up 1.64 to 16.89 along with the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) up 1.79 to 16.53.

On the downside, leading the way today, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 7.15 to 255.97, Google Inc. (GOOG) 6.88 to 498.72, Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) 3.42 to 54.41, Cree Inc. (CREE) 3.68 to 64.54, Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) 3.46 to 73.20, amd Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 5.99 to 122.77.

Among other multiple-point losses of note, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) was down 1.98 to 26.75, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) 1.79 to 142.25, and Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) 2.53 to 40.84.

In addition, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) gave back 1.23 to 17.25, China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) 1.33 to 17.61, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) 1.35 to 13.73, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) 1.47 to 18.97, and Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI) 1.24 to 33.87.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had huge gaps down. They did have an early snapback but that was about it. The rest of the day was spent moving steadily lower in a down channel that ended near the session lows. A very nasty way to end the week, indeed, as support was broken on both indices near the end of the session – an ominous sign for the bulls.

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