The stock market indices got smacked hard, particularly at the opening when they gapped down big time, dropped sharply right after the opening gap, and did try a snapback rally which failed at initial resistance. That was the best they could do all day.

During the rest of the day they stair-stepped lower, tested, bounced a couple times, but then rolled over in the last hour only to bounce in the last 10 minutes to bring them off the lows, but still an extremely negative day.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 268.22 at 9870.30, the S&P 500 down 33.33 at 1041.24, and the Nasdaq 100 down 71.94 at 1764.06.

Advance/declines were extremely negative today with 260 issues up and 2852 down on the New York Stock Exchange and 288 up and 2402 down on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was at an extreme level today as well.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was extremely negative today, with some very big losses, particularly in the large-cap tech stocks. Leading the way on the downside, Google Inc. (GOOG) dropped 17.82 at 454.26, Apple Inc. (AAPL) 12.13 at 256.17, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 9.19 at 108.61, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 5.03 at 112.58, Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI) 2.43 at 31.51, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) 2.51 at 22.84, and Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.90 at 133.79. In addition, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) gave back a whopping 3.56 at 33.59, and Cree Inc. (CREE) 3.76 at 60.88.

There were many other multiple-point losers, which included several of the stocks that we follow closely. Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) lost 1.58 at 27.26, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) 1.04 at 15.55, and Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) 1.90 at 43.85.

In the Chinese sector, China Agritech Inc. (CAGC) was down 1.05 at 10.40, China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) 86 cents at 17.97, and RINO International Corporation (RINO) 1.54 at 12.23.

There were too many others to mention on the downside today.

Stocks on the upside included most of the ultra-short ETFs, with the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) leading the way, up 5.11 to 48.72. The Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) gained 1.51 to 17.68, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 1.60 to 16.97, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 2.61 to 30.83.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a decidedly strong down day with strong negative technicals, but the indices did manage to bounce back late in the session near key support levels.

We'll see if that's meaningful or not going forward tomorrow, but today was an exceptionally negative day for the indices, with big down gaps at the opening triggering the sell-off. We’ll see if we're anywhere near a climatic low at this point and we can reverse off these levels or not, or whether this is just the beginning of a very serious slide. Stay tuned.

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