The stock market indices started out with a little bit of a pop and then immediately sold off sharply. When yesterday’s late lows held, the indices turned around and rallied for the rest of the day. Only a mid-afternoon pause prevented them from going straight up, but they never violated their intraday moving averages on the 5-minute charts, with the Nasdaq 100 going from 1855 to 1890 and S&P 500 jumping from 1133 to 1148.

Only a late 15-minute pullback pared the gains a bit.

Net on the day the Dow was up 53.51 to 10680.77, the S&P 500 up 9.46 to 1145.68, and the Nasdaq 100 up 24.34 to 1886.13. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) advanced 5.64, about 1 1/2 percent, to 359.09.

Advance-declines were about 22 1/2 to 8 positive on New York and about 18 to 8 1/2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 3 to 1 positive on New York on light total volume of 960 million. Nasdaq traded a hefty 2.3 billion and had a 3 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, with several point-plus gainers. Many of the Chinese stocks that had very sharp early declines came back with abandon. China Agritech (CAGC), for example, rallied nearly 5 intraday to close up 2.26 on the day at 37.48.

Skechers (SKX) gained 2.52 to 30.95, Amtech Systems (ASYS) 2.33 to 12.86 and portfolio position Xyratex (XRTX) 1.79 to 17.04.

Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) advanced 2.69 to 84.27, and Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) 1.43 to 57.10.

Nanometrics (NANO) jumped 38 cents to 12.09, Revlon (REV) 29 cents to 16.97, portfolio position Taser (TASR) 34 cents to 6.27.

On the downside, Rambus (RMBS) lost 1.89 to 29.40 as a key court decision looms near. Telestone Technologies (TSTC) gave back 1.63 to 20.52, and Sourcefire (FIRE) 1.14 to 25.13.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, they were up at the opening, down sharply early on, and then rallied strongly the rest of the way. They moved back above their moving averages and resistance levels on the hourly charts and then approach and/or test 2009 highs on the Nasdaq 100, just under 1150, reaching as high as 1148.40 today. But resistance is still above us, and we’ll have to see if they can take that out and forward, or whether this is a retest which then rolls over and completes a topping pattern.

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