The stock market indices started the week out on a negative note, but the session began very differently. They gapped up at the opening, ran sharply, reached resistance, and then came down very hard off those resistance levels to test support.

They bounced mid-morning, and then went into a consolidation pattern that appeared to be a bear-flag type consolidation. When resistance at 1820-22 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1075-76 on the S&P 500 failed to be penetrated, they rolled over in the afternoon and closed right at the session lows going away.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 39.21 at 10,174.41, about 130 points off its high. The S&P 500 fell 4.33 to 1067.36, closing 14 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 was up 17.44 at 1808.31, some 34 points off its high.

Advance/declines were better than 3 to 2 negative on the New York Stock Exchange and 3 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 2 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of a light 789 million shares traded. Lowest day of the year. Nasdaq had a 3 to 1 negative ratio on total volume of just under 1 3/4 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly lower today, but there were some outstanding gainers. Leading the way today was Isilon Systems, Inc. (ISLN) up 2.13 at 19.96, and CommVault Systems, Inc. (CVLT) up 2.86 at 23.65. Google Inc. (GOOG) jumped 2.05 to 464.07, and Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) 1.03 to 20.13.

The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) was up 1.48 to 38.70, and Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) up 97 cents to 36.94.

On the downside, point-plus losers included Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (JAZZ), which got hammered on a negative FDA ruling, down 2.27 to 7.96. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) lost 1.16 to 126.60, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) was down 3.84 to 245.80 today, putting pressure on all the indices.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, down sharply after that in the morning, stabilized during midday, and then rolled over in the last hour or two to close at the session lows going away.

It was quite the negative start, closing near key support on the indices. The indices will likely undergo a key test of support tomorrow and could crack to lower levels.

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