This week started off on an extremely negative note with pre-market futures down sharply. The stock market indices gapped lower, had an initial bounce, but that was about the best that could be said for the day.

They came down sharply all morning, bounced late in the morning one more time, failed at resistance, and rolled over in a steady declining channel all day. Only at the end of the day did they bounce off the lows near 2355 on the Nasdaq 100 and near 1316 on the S&P 500.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 151.44 at 12,505.76, about 35 points off the low. The S&P 500 was down 24.31 at 1319.49, 3 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 down 43.89 at 2362.00, about 8 points off its low.

Advance-declines were extremely negative by more than 6 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 30 to 1 negative on New York on total volume of 800 million shares down and 25 million up. Nasdaq traded 1 3/4 billion shares and had a 12 to 1 negative ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was extremely lower today for the most part across the board. Still, there were some outstanding issues on our board. Leading the way, once again, was Coffee Holding Co. Inc. (JVA), up 2.60 to 29.35, trading as high as 30.98 at one point. Farmer Brothers Co. (FARM), another coffee company, jumped 2.39 to 12.04, and Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (CBOU) was also up 55 cents to 14.15.

In addition, Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. (QTWW) advanced 65 cents to 5.41, and VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) was up almost 1.00 to 39.88.

Other gainers of note included Genetic Technologies Ltd. (GENE) up 1.52 to 10.30, and GSV Capital Corp. (GSVC), which we traded today, up 1.82 to 18.02. Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (PSTI) gained 32 cents to 3.65, VASCO Data Security International Inc. (VDSI) 94 cents to 13.82, and Micromet, Inc. (MITI) 42 cents to 6.18,

On the downside, leading the way with multiple-point losses included Apple Inc. (AAPL) down 5.71 to 354.00, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 5.73 to 212.55, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.06 to 132.02, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 2.61 to 53.94, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 2.82 to 72.86, and Youku.com Inc (YOKU) 2.25 to 36.34.

Among other point-plus losers, MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) was down 1.74 to 31.01, LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) 1.10 to 43.33, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) 1.12 to 32.52, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.50 to 174.99, Global Crossing Ltd. (GLBC) 1.66 to 39.28, and Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) 1.80 to 29.38.

Ultra-short ETFs were very strong today. The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) jumped 3.35 to 46.40, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) 2.04 to 33.53, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 1.67 to 22.02, and ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) 1.31 to 48.49.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were sharply lower today completing the topping patterns that had existed, but did bounce late in the session not far from minor support.

We’ll see what kind of additional down side we can get tomorrow, or whether the bulls want to take back control.

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