The stock market indices had a very sharp follow-through to the downside, especially in the last 40 minutes. The day started out with a gap up. They backed and filled, and then pulled back down and tested support, which held on the Nasdaq 100 but not the S&P 500. They managed to stabilize around midday before the FOMC announcement, at which point the indices ran up, plunged, came right back very sharply, but then rolled over in the last 40 minutes, particularly on the NDX, which dropped from 2312 to 2258. The S&P 500 dropped from the 1194 key resistance point down to 1166, a very big percentage drop in the last 40 minutes.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 283.82 at 11,124.84, the S&P 500 down 35.33 at 1166.76, and the Nasdaq 100 down 37.59 at 2258.30.

Advance-declines were about 5 1/2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 5 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was something like 23 to 1 negative, with 49 million shares up and 1.15 billion shares down on New York. Nasdaq had 430 million shares up and 1.75 billion shares down, very strong volume. Total volume on Nasdaq was about 2.1 billion and about 1.2 billion on New York.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower, as many of the stocks we follow had an extremely negative day today. Goldman Sachs (GS) dropped under 100 today at 97.86, down 4.75. Financials, in particular, got slam-dunked today. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) lost 1.91 to 30.34, closing near the low for the day. Morgan Stanley (MS) fell 1.30 to 13.82, and Bank of America Corporation (BAC) lost 52 cents to 6.38, or 7 1/2% today.

The rest of the board was pretty ugly today except for the ultra-shorts. There were a few minor gainers, but very little to speak of. Youku.com Inc (YOKU) fell 2.04 to 16.21, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 2.29 to 53.01, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 1.60 to 39.85, and Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) 2.62 to 11.93. First Solar, Inc. (FSLR), one of our Boxer Shorts, really got hammered, down 5.69 to 73.52.

In addition, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) gave back 1.70 to 173.02, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 1.31 to 412.14 after reaching as high as 421 earlier in the day, 10 points off its high.

The ultra-short ETFs had a stellar day, of course. The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was up 8.07 to 65.60, the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) up 6.36 to 65.50, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) 5.00 to 49.85. All of those were higher yet in the aftermarket, with the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX), in particular, up 2 points.

It was a very negative close, and it sure looks like a top is in and the stock market at this point has some lower levels to reach, but we’ll see what we get. The next support level to be watching on the S&P 500 is the 1138-40 zone, which is quite a bit lower from here. The Nasdaq 100 has a trendline in play that comes in around the 2200 area.

That very well could be the next level we reach before we see a substantial snapback rally.

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