The stock market indices suffered a down day to start the week, but did start with a little strength early on in the Nasdaq 100, when it retested the 1799-1800 zone unsuccessfully. The S&P 500 got up to 1064 and change and then began a slide that lasted the entire the session in stair-step fashion, which was fairly orderly until the last 15-20 minutes when it spiked down, leaving the SPX at the session lows.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 140.92 to close at 10,009.73, the S&P 500 15.67 to 10,048.92, and the Nasdaq down 19.57 at 1772.07.

Advance-declines were about 3 1/2 to 1 negative on New York and about 4 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 13 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of a very light 860 million, probably the lightest volume of the year. Nasdaq volume was just under 1.6 billion, but the ratio was 5 1/2 to 1 negative on down volume over up volume.

As a result, TheTechTrader.com board was mostly negative. Google (GOOG) dropped 6.14 to 452.69, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.74 to 136.66, Amazon (AMZN) 2.85 to 123.79, and OmniVision (OVTI( 1.38 to 21.88.

Those were the point-plus losers on our board other than the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS), which gave back 1.04 to 17.60.

Other stocks of note on the downside, RINO International (RINO) lost 87 cents to 15.16, Trina Solar (TSL) 73 cents to 24.77, Valassis Communications Inc. 71 cents to 29.95, Westport Innovations (WPRT) 59 cents to 16.27, Isilon Systems (ISLN) 81 cents to 19.16, China Green Agriculture 60 cents to 10.05, China Automotive (CAAS) 49 cents to 14.28, and ADTRAN Inc. 55 cents to 31.09.

As you can see, many Chinese stocks had a difficult session.

On the upside, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) gained 2.36 to 38.30, the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 1.76 to 38.98, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 89 cents to 17.05, the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 70 cents to 16.45, and iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 68 cents to 22.18.

Among stocks, Apple (AAPL) managed to gain 88 cents to 242.50, and L & L Energy, Inc. (LLEN) 50 cents to 9.02. Transocean Ltd. (RIG) advanced 31 cents to 52.34.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart pattern, the indices were up slightly near the opening on the NDX, but the SPX failed to follow through on the new rally high and they backed off steadily in stair-step fashion only to spike into the close and end at the lows for the day going away.

It was a very bad day for the indices to start the week. Today's highs were right on the declining tops lines on the major down channel, and that does not augur well for prices going forward. It looks like we may at least test the lows if not take them out and reach lower levels shortly.

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