The stock market indices suffered another sharp setback, breaking key support today. At the opening they gapped down sharply, went sharply lower reaching 1767 on the Nasdaq 100 and as low as 1046 and change on the S&P 500. At that point they had a sharp, 5-wave reversal rally that recaptured about half the losses, and then rolled over, retested, and bounced late in the session. When that rally was stymied with about a half hour to go, they rolled over hard into the close, and closed down for the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 133.96 at 10,040.45, the S&P 500 down 15.49 at 1051.87, and the Nasdaq 100 down 33.04 at 1775.27.

Advance/declines were 23 to 7 negative on the New York Stock Exchange. Up/down volume was about 7 to 1 negative on New York with a total volume of 1.15 billion shares traded. On Nasdaq advance/declines were about 3 to 1 negative, with up/down volume about 5 1/2 to 1 negative.

It was a decisive down day today on Wall Street. The McClellan Oscillator closed at -240, a very steep number, indicative that we are getting very oversold. Also, both Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 reached the bottom of their current down channels, which could result in some snapback action. But until we see a more decisive low, it appears that the indices are headed even lower. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, but certainly the close today did not augur well for stocks.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower, but there were some outstanding positions to the upside today. Leading the way on the upside was Transocean Ltd. (RIG) up 1.53 at 52.40. Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) jumped 1.29 to 23.70 after releasing a strong earnings report. HSW International, Inc. (HSWI) advanced 1.26 to 7.49, MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) 2.20 to 32.30, Daktronics Inc. (DAKT) 1.35 to 9.17, Acacia Research Corporation (ACTG) 2.45 to 15.62, and Radware Ltd. (RDWR) 1.26 to 24.78.

On the downside, leading the way was Google Inc. (GOOG), down 12.68 to 451.39. Other large-cap leaders were Apple Inc. (AAPL) down 5.87 to 239.93, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.79 to 143.95, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 2.07 to 124.53.

In addition, Cree Inc. (CREE) lost 2.01 to 55.35, IDT Corporation (IDT) 1.45 to 14.84, and BP Exploration plc (BP) 1.20 to 34.92.

In the Chinese sector, China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) lost 1.25 to 14.93.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down large today, sold off sharply in the first half hour, rebounded over the next couple hours sharply, and were only able to regain about half their losses, and rolled over into the afternoon before bouncing. But that bounce was short-lived as the indices rolled over in the last half hour to close at the afternoon lows going away. It was a very negative close for the indices and does not augur well for prices going forward.

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