The stock market indices began the day today with a really big gap down. The foreign markets fell as a result of the Japan disaster, and the Japanese Nikkei dropped 10.6 percent, or more than 1,000 points as well.

The rest of the day, however, was spent snapping back, as the indices worked its way back from nearly a 290-point loss on the Dow.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 137.74 at 11,855.43, with a low of 11,696. The S&P 500 got down to 1261, and closed at 1281.87, down 14.52, 20 points off its low. The Nasdaq 100 was down 31.10 at 2259.62, which was 42 points off its low. It had been down nearly 70 points at one point.

Advance-declines were about 3 1/2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 5 to 1 negative on New York with a total volume of about 1 1/4 billion shares traded. Nasdaq traded more than 2 1/3 billion shares and had an almost 5 to 1 negative ratio on declining volume over advancing volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower, but there were some outstanding gainers as well. Leading the way was Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), jumping nearly 16 points, up 15.91 to 217.11. Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) was up 4.40 to 39.38, VeriFone Systems, Inc. (PAY) up 3.56 to 51.47, and Impax Laboratories Inc. (IPXL), one that we traded today, up 3.45 to 25.52.

Solar energy group was very strong today as alternative energy came into play based on the nuclear disaster in Japan. Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) was up 1.77 to 26.00, LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (LDK) 1.06 to 12.64, Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (STP) 82 cents to 9.10, and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (YGE) 1.01 to 12.27.

The ETF for the solar group, Guggenheim Solar (TAN), gained 67 cents to 8.44.

In addition, Power-One Inc. (PWER) jumped 64 cents to 8.84.

Also among the winners were Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. (CBLI) up 46 cents to 8.40, Hypercom Corp. (HYC) 78 cents to 11.28, and ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Ltd. (ICOG) with a 42% gain, up 81 cents to 2.73. Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR) advanced 65 cents to 6.76, Rubicon Technology, Inc. (RBCN) 1.40 to 26.51, and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (RGR) 86 cents to 20.72, a swing trade of ours that’s working out very well.

In addition, Heckmann Corporation (HEK) was up 44 cents to 6.01, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) 98 cents to 21.31, and EnergySolutions, Inc (ES) up 60 cents to 6.60.

On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) dropped 8.13 to 345.43, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 2.37 to 159.02, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 1.65 to 165.08, Goldman Sachs (GS) 1.18 to 157.25, and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 1.65 to 44.05. SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) was down 1.11 to 43.25.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down hard and were at their session lows within the first few minutes, but then rallied steadily back all day to close substantially off the lows. Still, it was a very negative Tuesday, and the indices backed off late in the session at what appeared to be overhead resistance, and were unable to get through that.

So 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.