The stock market indices suffered a down day today, and although they started with a brief flurry to the upside, that was about it. They sold off quickly in the morning, tested support and bounced and then consolidated, with the S&P 500 acting a bit better than the Nasdaq 100. But with Apple (AAPL) under pressure today, Nasdaq led the way down as they resumed their sell-off in the afternoon when they broke through the neckline support around the 1800 area on the NDX and 1108 on the SPX.

In the afternoon they sold off steadily to reach the 1866-67 zone on the NDX and near 1103 on the SPX. In the last half hour they bounced back to pare the losses, but still ended up down on the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 39.81 at 10,497.88, the S&P 500 down 7.71 at 1106.13, and the Nasdaq 100 down 16.19 at 1872.62.

Advance/declines were almost exactly 2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and up/down volume just under 3 to 1 negative on light total volume of just over 1 billion shares today. Advance/declines were 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq, and the up/down volume was about 2 1/2 to 1 negative as well on just over 1.8 billion shares.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed, but the majority of stocks were on the downside, except for the ultra-shorts. However, portfolio position L & L Energy, Inc. (LLEN) had an excellent day, up 1.08 at 11.16 on nearly 1.5 million shares, breaking the stock out to new 3-month highs.

In addition, Silicon Image Inc. (SIMG) jumped 1.00 to 4.35, with a solid percentage gain, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) was up 1.47 at 31.65. Other than that, there were no other point-plus gainers on the board.

On the downside, Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) lost 2.36 at 18.63, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) 1.32 at 23.03, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) 1.47 at 33.39, Cree Inc. (CREE) 1.42 at 71.61, Cirrus Logic Inc. (CRUS) 1.10 at 19.17, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 3.12 at 260.96. The big loser today was Google Inc. (GOOG), down 8.28 at 484.35.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a distinct 4-wave decline today and came off the lows in the last half hour, but it was definitely a negative day for the indices. Support now resides around 1860-65 zone on the NDX, and around the 1096-98 zone on the SPX. We’ll see if that’s able to hold tomorrow.

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