The stock market indices suffered losses today and were down sharply in the morning, but did manage to rally to take back a lot of the losses, and in the last hour backed off once again.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 83.93 at 12,723.58, which was about 50 points off the low. The S&P 500 was down 9.30 at 1347.32, about 6 points off its low. The Nasdaq 100 was down 5.29 at 2387.51, 20 points off its low. The biggest comeback today was on Nasdaq.

Advance declines were a little worse than 2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange and about 2 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 3 to 1 negative on New York with total volume of just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.2 billion shares and had about a 12 to 9 negative volume ratio.

While the majority of the stocks on the TheTechTrader.com board were lower, some of them sharply so, there were some outstanding gainers today. Leading the way, Adams Golf Inc. (ADGF) was up 2.41 to 7.41, one of the percentage gain highlights, up 48.2%. SIGA Technologies, Inc. (SIGA) gained 1.23 to 13.97, MGM Resorts International (MGM) 1.33 to 14.22, ServiceSource International (SREV) 1.21 to 14.11, and AXT Inc. (AXTI) 81 cents to 8.00. Those were among some of the stocks of significance that we picked and traded today.

Other stocks of note, Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) gained 87 cents to 13.88, and Sify Technologies Limited (SIFY) was up 60 cents to 6.50, both of which are snapback stocks from recent sharp losses. CBS Corporation (CBS) was up 1.97 to 27.21 on strong earnings.

PharmAthene, Inc. (PIP) advanced 28 cents to 3.84. Apple Inc. (AAPL) 1.37 to 349.57, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 1.52 to 199.97. Both Apple and Amazon were substantially off the lows.

Ultra-short ETF Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) jumped another 1.35 to 35.74, and Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) was up 87 cents to 18.12.

On the downside, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) lost 5.53 to 72.01, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (JAZZ) gave back 2.24 to 29.64, and Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) dropped 1.50 to 28.93. Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) was down 1.62 to 39.44, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) got smashed for 3.19 to 28.50, and Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) lost 1.58 to 20.67.

Other losses of note, IDT Corporation (IDT) was down 1.09 to 26.35, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 2.25 to 170.62, LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) 1.21 to 36.05, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 2.14 to 42.28.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up right near the opening, but then sold off in a 5-wave decline to its lows for the day just around midday. They began a sharp rally back, especially on Nasdaq, which jumped from 2367 to 2396. The S&P 500 at that point went from 1342 to 1351, but then backed off into the close on both indices.

We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but today may have been nothing more than a technical snapback off secondary support, or it was the beginning of, or the end of, a brief pullback decline and we go up from here.

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