The indices started the week with a bang and ended with big gains on the day.

The session started out with a big gap to the upside. They ran very sharply higher and hard early on, eased into a lower angle of ascent, but continued higher all morning, backed and filled mid-day, and reached their mid-day and session peaks with about 3 hours to go. Then they rolled over to do a serious test in late afternoon that held at 1470 NDX and 940 SPX.

The last hour saw a sharp snapback towards the session highs, and then they pulled back a little into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was up 221.11 at 8721.44, the S&P 500 up 23.73 at 942.87, and the Nasdaq 100 up 41.55 at 1477.12. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) had a monster day, up 14.40, nearly 5 percent, at 285.71.

Advance-declines were 5 to 1 positive on New York and about 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was better than 3 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of just over 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded billion more than 2.6 billion and had about an 8 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, however, was mixed, with some important point-plus gainers today. Apple (AAPL) was up 3.54 at 139.35, Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) up 2.05 to 26.44, Cree Inc. (CREE) up 1.19 to 31.55, DG FastChannel (DGIT) up 1.14 to 20.92, Mosaic (MOS) up 1.77 to 56.47, and Potash (POT) up 1.22 to 117.06.

Former portfolio holding SYNNEX (SNX) gained 1.68 to 27.56.

The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) advanced 1.03 to 37.43, the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) 2.16 to 39.53, and the iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) 3.21 to 57.41.

Other stocks of note, Dendreon (DNDN) advanced 75 cents to 23.42 on 5 Ã,½ million, a new 4-week high. AgFeed Industries (FEED) exploded to tag 7, closing at 6.89, up 85 cents on nearly 6 million. PALM advanced another 52 cents to 12.71 today.

Portfolio position SIGA Technologies (SIGA) at 7.89 was up 60 cents, and Pyramid Oil (PDO) advanced to 7.89 +1.61 or more than 24%.

On the downside, the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) dropped 2.87 to 22, and the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) dropped 1.64 to 17.94 in the weak ultrashort sector.

OCLS got hammered for 94 cents to 2.97 and Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) lost 54 cents to 14.10. EXEL lost 42 cents to 5.13 as profits were taken in the junior biotech group, after the ASCO convention.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, blew out above the recent trading ranges and ran hard and consolidated but closed strongly to new 2009 highs. We’ll see if the rally can continue here, but certainly today was a significant day technically.

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