The stock market indices suffered some losses today, but rebounded sharply intraday to close way off the early morning steep drop lows.

The day started out with a gap down and a sharp sell-off. The Nasdaq 100 reached down to 2331, and the S&P 500 down to near 1239. They the surged back with a sharp rally in the early morning to get the NDX back up near 2365 . That’s about a 33-point rally on the NDX.The S&P 500 rallied from 1239 up to 1255, a nice 16-point run. They sold off in the last hour ,but bounced late into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 61.23 at 11,983.24, 123 points off its low. The S&P 500 was down 7.92 at 1253.23, and closed 15 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 11.36 at 2356.32, 25 points off its low.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 2 negative on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was about 2 to 1 negative on New York, and total volume was a light 840 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded 1.8 billion shares and had about a 10 to 8 negative plurality.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed today. There were quite a few gainers and losers today. On the plus side, Inhibitex Inc. (INHX), another junior biotech, was up 4.58 to 8.54 on positive drug news, and at one point today traded as high as 9.45, which was nearly double the opening price. Still, it closed up 115.7%. Only a late sell-off prevented that from closing near the high.

In addition, Alon USA Energy, Inc. (ALJ), another big winner today, was up 3.63 to 11.44, or 46 1/2%; DragonWave Inc. (DRWI) up 1.49 to 5.09, or 41%; low-priced SemiLEDs Corporation (LEDS) 93 cents to 3.89, or 31%; PowerSecure International, Inc. (POWR) 1.30 to 5.92, or 28%; AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMAG) 2.45 to 16.20, or 18%; and MedAssets, Inc. (MDAS) 1.82 to 12.18, or 17 1/2%.

Among other multiple-point gainers, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) was up a whopping 7.56 to 51.97, Insulet Corporation (PODD) up 2.13 to 16.98, Skullcandy, Inc. (SKUL) 1.85 to 17.14, Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (ACOR), a junior biotech, 3.02 to 23.47, and Maxwell Technologies Inc. (MXWL) 1.99 to 21.20.

Also, Hansen Natural Corporation (HANS) was up 5.43 to 95.56 today, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) up 3.77 to 70.67.

On the downside, Goldman Sachs (GS) lost 2.64 to 105.04. That held back the financials. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) fell 92 cents to 186.38, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 2.27 to 90.02, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 1.87 to 29.61, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 2.83 to 400.24.

The ultra-shorts did well today. VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) gained 2.33 to 52.00 even, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) added 1.66 to 40.73.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down sharply early on, rallied back sharply, but couldn’t quite regain the high at 1255 on the S&P 500, stalling just under that to close at 1253.

Let’s see how it goes next week.

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