The stock market indices suffered a nasty spill today with huge down gaps at the opening, and didn’t stand a chance. They did manage to snapback from the 2295 area up towards 2320 on Nasdaq 100, while the S&P 500 snapped back from 1218 to 1232. But they then sold off to lower lows, reaching under 2290, double bottoming there, and then rallying in the early afternoon to retest those highs, but failed to break through, and rolled over in a 3-wave decline into the close to close not far off the lows on the S&P 500 and Dow.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 297.05 at 11,657.96, the S&P 500 down 35.02 at 1218.28, and the Nasdaq 100 down 61.71 at 2298.37.

Advance-declines were almost 6 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange with 2603 decliners to 445 advancers, and about 5 1/2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq with 2140 decliners to 405 advancers. Up/down volume was decidedly extremely negative with 1 1/4 billion down and 73 million up on New York, and 2.1 billion down and 188 million up on Nasdaq.

The ratios were astronomical, as it was a very, very negative day.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly down today. Leading the way on the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 8.27 to 396.51, Goldman Sachs (GS) 6.01 to 103.54, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) 3.00 to 46.77, and Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 2.16 to 44.67.

Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) got slammed back 2.10 to 8.83, Sify Technologies Limited (SIFY) 1.51 to 4.79, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 2.19 to 31.89, and Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 2.30 to 29.56.

Other losses of note included Franklin Resources Inc. (BEN) down 6.63 to 100.00, Domtar Corporation (UFS) down 4.20 to 77.71, Waters Corp. (WAT) 3.27 to 76.85, and Mercadolibre, Inc. (MELI) 2.64 to 62.56.

On the plus side, gainers included low-priced Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX) down 1.02 to 7.28, Akorn, Inc. (AKRX) up 90 cents to 9.89, Pharmasset, Inc. (VRUS) on good drug news was up 6.59 to 76.99, and EnerNOC, Inc. (ENOC) 1.06 to 9.93.

The ultra-shorts had a fantastic day. VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was up 13.20 to 58.60, Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) up 5.22 to 45.00 even, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 5.81 to 45.92, and Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) 2.96 to 33.59,

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down big time, but backed and filled in trading ranges, and closed near the end of those trading ranges during the course of the session. The NDX was bouncing between 2290 and 2320 roughly, and the S&P 500 between 1215 and 1234.

It was a very nasty day on Wall Street and the indices closed under the moving averages on the hourly charts. It was a very negative occurrence technically.

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