The stock market indices had an up-day today, but the sharp afternoon sell-off took them way off the earlier sharp highs, and only a bounce in the last 15 minutes managed to keep them from giving it all back.

The day started out with a big gap up. The indices pulled back immediately, held intraday moving average support, and then exploded to the highs for the session by late morning around 11 o’clock at 2377 and change on the Nasdaq 100 and 1331.50 on the S&P 500. They pulled back in an orderly manner, and it looked like they were flagging for more up side, but when they failed to rally and started to rollover, they started to accelerate down. They plunged in the last half hour giving back a big chunk of the gains.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 44.73 at 12,491.61, down 120 points off its high. The S&P 500 was up 4.08 at 1317.72, 14 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 8.64 at 2352.43, 25 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 2 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and about 2 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 1/2 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of 870 million shares traded, and Nasdaq traded about 1.87 billion shares and had about a 2 to 1 positive volume ratio despite the sharp sell-off. At one point it was up more than 10 to 1.

It was a disappointing close for the bulls, but nevertheless gains were made. NDX support is now in the 2342-45 zone and the S&P 500 support in the1313-15 zone.

TheTechTrader.com was mostly higher today despite all of that and there were many gainers today. Leading the way was percentage gainer Taomee Holdings Ltd. American D (TAOM) up 2.01 to 12.70, or 19%. New Energy Systems Group (NEWN) jumped 35 cents to 2.23, or 19%, and PROLOR Biotech, Inc. (PBTH), which we highlighted today, was up 97 cents to 6.01, or 19.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) added 1.93 to 17.01, or 13%, and Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) managed to snapped back 71 cents to 23.08, although it gave back a big chunk of it in the last hour. Renren Inc. American Depositary (RENN) was up 73 cents to 10.25.

In addition, LinkedIn Corporation (LNKD) had a big day, up 8.37 to 107.87, trading near 110 earlier today. That’s up from 60 just three weeks ago. Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) was up 81 cents to 11.71, ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) 1.20 to 14.36, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SPPI) 76 cents to 10.39, and Ocz Technology Group Inc. (OCZ) 30 cents to 10.27.

Among other gainers of note, Apple Inc. (AAPL) jumped 4.27 to 358.02, just a little off its high. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was up 2.27 to 213.50, more than 3 points off its high. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) gained 1.25 to 54.33, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) jumped 5.10 to 71.97.

On the downside, the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) was down 1.97 to 15.27, and the ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) down 1.03 to 45.70.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, rolled over early afternoon, and then spiked down into the close only to bounce in the last few minutes. It closed positive on the session, but not a great close for the bulls.

We’ll be watching key support levels as designated earlier for tomorrow.

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