It was a brutal down day punctuated by a steep sell-off at the close. The indices closed at the lows for the day going away.

It was much different early on. Despite the fact the futures were lower before the opening and they opened sharply lower, they staged a remarkable sharp rally, particularly on Nasdaq, where the Nasdaq 100 rallied from 1958 to 1991, a 33-point move inside of an hour. The S&P 500 trailed at the point, although it did bounce about 15 points.

They started a pullback after they failed to overcome resistance, especially on the SPX, starting a downtrend that lasted all day and accelerated into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was down 387, the S&P 500 44 Ã,½, and the Nasdaq 100 more than 50 Ã,½. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) fell around 3.

The technicals were extremely negative, with advance-declines negative by about 26 to 7 on New York and by about 2 to 1 on Nadsaq. Up/down volume was the story today, with nearly 2.4 billion shares traded to the downside on New York with just 400 million to the upside. That was about a 6 to 1 negative ratio.

Nasdaq was nearly as bad on up/down volume, with about 3 to 1 negative, on very heavy volume of 3 Ã,½ billion traded today.

TheTechTrader.com board was all over the place, with some strong gainers and losers. Eschelon Corp. (ELON) had another wild topsy-turvy day. It opened sharply lower, got down to 28 and then exploded for 4 Ã,½ points before settling back, up 1.95 on the day on 2.6 million.

FuelTek (FTEK) had another very strong advance, with similar action there, jumping from the early session low of 30.50 to 34.76, more than 4 points, before settling back and closing up 1.02 on the day,

Former portfolio position and former Chart of the Week DG FastChannel (DGIT) jumped from 18 Ã,¾ to 20.62 before settling back and closing at 20.33, up 1.42.

Those were the point-plus gainers. Hoku Scientific (HOKU) on positive news jumped 1 on 5 Ã,½ million shares, although that was about a point off the earlier high. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) rallied from 31 Ã,½ to 36 today before pulling back to 33.71, up 71 cents on the day.

JA Solar (JASO) gained 55 cents, NVE Corp. (NVEC) 69 cents and Sigma Designs (SIGM), tagging a new all-time high at 35.72, backed off a point, but still was up 53 cents on the day on 1 Ã,¾ million.

Taser (TASR) jumped 57 cents today on 5 million shares.

On the downside, LSB Industries (LXU) fell 1.28, Global Solutions (GSOL) 1.86, Excel Maritime (EXM) in the weak shipping sector off 1.23, DryShips (DRYS) 1.05, and Ceragon Networks (CRNT) 1.41. Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) lost 1.31.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the sharp breakout we got after the FOMC meeting quickly reversed in its entirety today on the S&P, and nearly so on the Nasdaq 100.

So it's likely we'll see a downside follow-through, but will the lows from earlier this will be tested and broken, that’s the question. If they're taken out, the market could be in store for much more downside.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. For more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a free 15-day trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary, or sign up for a free 30-day trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.