The stock market indices started out the week with a down move, although they did rally back in the afternoon to cut the losses in half. The day started out with a thrust to the downside. They then snapped back and then made lower lows with the indices reaching the lows at just about noon midday. They then did snap back in a 5-wave advance, but still closed down sharply for the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 94.57 at 12,385.16, about 90 points off its low. The S&P 500 fell 10.70 at 1305.44, about 10 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 was down 12.66 at 2344.01, about 22 points off its low.

Advance-declines were nearly 6 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange with nearly 2600 down and 450 up, and about 7 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 10 to 1 negative on New York with total volume just over 870 million shares traded. Nasdaq traded about 1.8 billion shares and had about a 4 to 1 negative ratio, decliners over advancers.

So it was a decidedly negative day today. However, the levels reached at their session lows this morning were near key support levels, at 1296 S&P 500 and near the 2320 area on the Nasdaq 100. That did cause a bounce back, so we’ll have to see if they can extend and break back up to the declining tops lines, which right now are around 1310 on the S&P 500 and up around the 2350 area on the NDX.

TheTechTrader.com, as a result, was mostly lower today, but there were many point-plus gainers. Leading the way, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) jumped 7.82 to 84.91, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 8.88 to 373.80, a new all-time high today.

Among other gainers of note, Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) gained 1.79 to 21.58, Shengkai Innovations, Inc. (VALV) 82 cents to 3.45, ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) 44 cents to 15.76, Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) 50 cents to 13.94, Flotek Industries Inc. (FTK) 50 cents to 9.44, and Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (CSII) 68 cents to 15.02, after it was upgraded to a buy today.

In addition, Qiao Xing Universal Resources, Inc. (XING) was up 32 cents to 1.42, or 29%. Taomee Holdings Ltd. American D (TAOM) advanced 2.70 to 16.09, or 20%, and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) 4.59 to 61.17.

Silver stocks were strong today, with AGCO Corp. (AG) up 1.90 to 24.47, Extorre Gold Mines Ltd. Ordinar (XG) up 65 cents to 13.15, and Sino Clean Energy Inc (SCEI) up 34 cents to 2.37, rounding out the gainers list.

On the downside, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) lost 1.34 to 211.53, Global Crossing Ltd. (GLBC) 1.38 to 35.83, MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) 1.40 to 30.29, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 1.08 to 51.18, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.75 to 72.69, ServiceSource International, In (SREV) 1.23 to 19.15, and Youku.com Inc (YOKU) 1.55 to 33.01.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down sharply in the morning and rallied back in the afternoon, but still closed down on the day, a negative way to start the week.

Perhaps we’ve reached a short-term level from which the indices can snap back. We’ll see over the next day or two what kind of energy the bulls have left.

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