The stock market indices suffered a sharp setback today with a big opening gap to the downside, which was followed by a rebound rally that failed. They rolled over, bounced a couple times, and did hold support, but closed at the session lows going away.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 228.48 at 11,984.61, closing under 12.000 for the first time in a while. The S&P 500 fell 24.91 to 1295.11, closing under the key 1300 level. The Nasdaq 100 dropped 38.40, and closed at 2284.29, just under 2300. So, all three broke key psychological levels today.

Advance-declines were better than 5 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 6 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was huge to the downside on New York, by about 12 to 1 negative, with 82 million shares up and more than a billion down. Nasdaq traded 2 billion shares to the downside and 375 million to the upside, about a 6 to 1 negative plurality.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly negative, but there were some outstanding gainers today. Leading the way was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR), which soared 18.07 to 61.71 on a deal with Starbucks. It was up 43% at one point during the day.

RC2 Corp. (RCRC) advanced 3.58 to 25.51, a 16% gain after merger rumors today and a solid earnings report. Semtech Corp. (SMTC) was up 2.51 to 25.01 on earnings today. AeroVironment, Inc. (AVAV) followed through to yesterday’s big gain, up 1.32 to 33.80, and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SPPI) rose 68 cents to 7.58.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) jumped 1.81 to 253.22, one of the only large-cap stocks with gains today.

The ultra-short ETFs did very well today. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) jumped 2.97 to 41.63, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 1.67 to 33.92, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 2.24 to 41.24, the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 1.99 to 38.84, and the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 1.78 to 22.08.

So, a very strong thrust to the upside by the ultrashort ETFs. That’s not a good sign for the market.

Many stocks were down multiple points, including International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), which fell 3.84 to 162.02. Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 5.80 to 346.67, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 2.91 to 166.14, and Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.08 to 160.27.

The oil patch suffered further damage today, with Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) down 1.75 to 31.94, and Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) down 1.96 to 28.17.

In addition, Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) dropped 1.38 to 20.07, and OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) gave back 1.01 to 30.61. IDT Corporation (IDT) fell 1.53 to 25.21, and Golden Minerals Company (AUMN) was down 2.25 to 19.41, as gold, silver, and oil all dropped today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down, bounced, but could not do much with that as resistance proved futile today. They ended up forming big wedge patterns into the close, but closed at the session lows on the S&P 500 and near them on the NDX.

Certainly a very negative day, and a very negative close as well. We’ll see if we get some downside follow-through tomorrow, but it certainly looks like we will.

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