It was a very strong turnaround Tuesday as the indices bolted from the get-go and rallied very sharply in the morning, reaching 1712 NDX and over 1060 on the SPX within the first hour and a half.

They then rolled over hard by early afternoon, taking back more than two-thirds of the gains before a sharp turnaround move over the last two hours that took back about two-thirds of their losses.

Net on the day they closed up 131.50 on the Dow at 9731.25, up 14.26 on the S&P 500 at 1054.72, and up 29.61 on the Nasdaq 100 at 1705.25.

Advance-declines were positive by 4 to 1 on New York and by 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 4 1/2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of under 1.2 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.4 billion and had a nearly 3 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was vastly higher as a result of the positive action. Leading way was NutriSystem (NTRI), which agreed on a major deal to sell their products through WalMart. The stock gapped up and ran past 18.60, closing at 17.46, up 2.41 on 6 1/2 million shares.

American International Group (AIG) ran from the get-go, from 43 to 46 1/2, then backed off to close at 44.83, up 2.08 on 45 million.

The Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) at 81.30 was up 2.87. JP Morgan (JPM) gained 1.11 to 44.91.

OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) advanced 1.81 to 33.57 on positive drug news. Westport Innovations (WPRT) was up 58 cents to 12.13, RINO International (RINO) 46 cents to 23.35, and portfolio position Hansen Medical (HNSN) up 28 cents to 3.75.

Portfolio position EDAP (EDAP) added 23 cents to 3.96, China TransInfo (CTFO) 87 cents to 10.92, with a new all-time high of 11.35, and Brigham Exploration (BEXP) was up 43 cents at 9.40, as oil firmed today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were up sharply in the morning, down fairly sharply by mid-day and early afternoon, and then rallied back into the close to preserve most of the gains for the session.

The early gap up and breakout moved across the declining moving averages on the hourly charts; however they were unable to get through the declining tops lines of the last week or so. Until that occurs we’ll have to wait to see if they get an upside breakout follow-through tomorrow.

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