The week started off on a very sour note as the stock market indices went sharply lower today, although they did start out positive and slightly mixed. They retested the highs, but fell off very rapidly, bounced in the morning, and then stair-stepped their way lower all afternoon until late afternoon when they did have a decent bounce, taking back about a third of the losses on the Nasdaq 100 and about 25% on the S&P 500. However, they did roll over into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 247.49 at 11,397.00, the S&P 500 down 23.72 at 1200.86, and the Nasdaq 100 down 37.56 at 2334.38.

Advance-declines were 5 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and also 5 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 10 to 1 negative on New York, and almost 6 to 1 negative on Nasdaq.

So, it was a negative day on Wall Street, and a terrible way to start the week out unless you’re a bear.

TheTechTrader.com board wasn’t looking so great either, except for the ultrashort ETFs. The VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was up 10.15 to 60.04, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 4.52 to 56.21, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 4.20 to 44.66, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) 3.28 to 39.76, and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 2.10 to 37.60.

In addition, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) had a big day, up 6.39 to 36.75, as the company was acquired by Statoil. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was also up today, 1.29 to 117.33.

On the downside, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) was down 2.94 to 186.59, InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) down 2.93 to 46.16, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 1.94 to 37.15, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.40 to 33.81, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 1.82 to 28.00 even, LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) 1.78 to 34.06, MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) 1.94 to 39.56, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) 3.27 to 52.96, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 2.01 to 419.99.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices stair-stepped there way lower in a 5-wave decline until late in the day when they bounced, but only to back off into the close. The S&P 500 made nominal new lows at the close, closing under the 50-day moving average on the hourly chart, which is quite negative, but the NDX did not, bouncing into the close.

We‘ll see what tomorrow brings, but today was certainly a negative day on Wall Street.

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