The stock market indices suffered losses today, although in the last half hour they did snap back from the session lows to pare the losses. The day started out with a move to the upside as the S&P 500 spiked up to 1333.47, the highest level reached this year and in this entire rally for two weeks. The Nasdaq 100 reached the highest levels as well at 2479.31. However, they then turned around and came down hard, bounced a few times, and stair-stepped their way lower, and spiked into the low just about a half hour before the close, at which time they snapped back on an apparent short-covering.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 22.33 at 12,734.63, about 107 points off the high. The S&P 500 was down 7.62 to 1318.43, and the Nasdaq 100 dropped from 2479.31 to 2444.83 before bouncing to 2454.63, down 11.03.

Declines outnumbered advances by about 60 issues on the New York Stock Exchange, and by 230 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 850 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.9 billion shares and had a 2 to 1 negative plurality.

It was a decisive down day, but not a big one. We’ll just have to see whether support near the trend line and moving averages, which they did bounce off late in the day today, can hold or whether this is the start of something more on the downside. The NDX, despite being down 11.03, could have been a lot lower if not for Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) gaining 20.97 to 116.01, reaching as high as 119.37 earlier in the day, up over 24.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed, although there were a lot of gainers on our board today. In addition to NFLX, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) jumped 2.33 to 40.94, although that was almost a point off the high. Swing trade Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) had another good day, up 1.19 to 31.33, and Universal Display Corp. (PANL) was up 1.34 to 42.24.

Other stocks of note on our board that did very well today included J.C. Penney Company, Inc. Holdi (JCP), up a whopping 6.46 to 40.74, or 19%, on 46.8 million shares. Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (MLNX), a stock we traded, was up 5.08 to 36.24, while United Rentals, Inc. (URI) rose 3.10 to 37.87, and Time Warner Cable (TWC) had a big day today, up 5.40 to 74.51.

Arctic Cat Inc. (ACAT), on strong earnings, was up 4.77 to 28.58, or 20%, Parametric Technology Corp (PMTC) jumped 4.07 to 25.64, or 19%. We traded both of those.

In addition, Yandex N. V. (YNDX) was up 1.10 to 20.89, Home Inns & Hotels Management I (HMIN) up 1.35 to 29.87, WESCO International, Inc. (WCC) 3.76 to 63.97, and Procera Networks, Inc. (PKT) up 1.24 to 16.31.

In the lower-priced sector RealNetworks, Inc. (RNWK) was up 2.54 to 9.89, or a whopping 34 1/2%, on 1.7 million shares. EntreMed, Inc. (ENMD) gained 62 cents to 2.95, or 27%, and Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ENER) 29 cents to 1.27, or 30%.

On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 2.03 to 444.63, and that didn’t help the NDX as well. Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (SIMO) got hammered, down 2.29 to 20.93, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) lost 1.65 to 36.75.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had new multi-weeks highs and session highs early on today, and then stair-stepped their way lower all session, until the last half hour when they snapped back.

Nevertheless, it was a negative day, and we’ll see what kind of follow-through they get tomorrow.

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