The stock market indices started out the week on a down note, although they opened them strong with a little bit of a gap up and then immediately reversed. They sold off sharply until midday, rallied in the afternoon, and then sold off in the last 15 minutes.

Net on the day, the Dow closed down 79.85 at 12,090.03. The S&P 500 was down 11.02 at 1310.13. The Nasdaq 100 was down 31.89 at 2328.07.

Advance-declines were worse than 3 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and about the same on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was better than 4 to 1 negative on New York with total volume just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 2.2 billion and had about a 5 to 1 negative ratio.

It was a pretty decisive down day, although many of the stocks on the board were up today.

TheTechTrader.com board included Pharmasset, Inc. (VRUS), a day trade pick of ours that exploded and went up 12.16 to 61.93, reaching about 2 points higher than that within about an hour of the close.

Other big gainers of note included Western Digital Corp. (WDC) on the acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, up 4.67 to 34.68. Innospec Inc. (IOSP) jumped 2.54 to 28.89, James River Coal Co. (JRCC) 2.96 to 23.21, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 2.39 to 42.58, and EDAP TMS SA (EDAP) 1.11 to 4.69, up 31%.

In addition, Avalon Rare Metals, Inc. Ordina (AVL) advanced 32 cents to 7.66, Lucas Energy, Inc. (LEI) 71 cents to 4.95, LML Payment Systems Inc. (LMLP) 54 cents to 6.07, Ocz Technology Group Inc. (OCZ) 1.22 to 9.12, Mediware Information Systems Inc. (MEDW) 1.61 to 12.97, Seagate Technology PLC (STX) 1.12 to 13.56, Samson Oil & Gas Limited (SSN) 45 cents to 4.53, and Ram Energy Resources Inc. (RAME) 44 cents to 2.46.

Silver stocks were strong today, with Endeavour Silver Corp. (EXK) up 87 cents to 10.21, Great Panther Silver Limited Or (GPL) up 41 cents to 4.96, and First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG) up 84 cents to 18.08. Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. (SYMX) jumped 69 cents to 2.05, a 50.47% gain there.

On the downside large cap stocks didn’t do very well today. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was down 4.64 to 355.36, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 2.59 to 169.08, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) 2.44 to 252.56, Goldman Sachs (GS) 1.85 to 159.15, InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) 2.08 to 44.14, and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 1.56 to 47.70 after being 4 points higher earlier in the day.

Quite the negative reversal there.

Ultra-short ETFs had a good day today. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) was up 1.96 to 40.18, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) up 83 cents to 32.49, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) jumped 77 cents to 41.26, and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 93 cents to 37.65.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, but then sold off over the next several hours to find their session lows early in the afternoon. They managed to snap back in the afternoon to recover a portion of the losses, but still it was a decisive down day today that broke through two layers of support on the S&P 500.

With the bounce toward the end of the day being unimpressive, we expect potentially lower levels, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

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