The stock market indices ended on the plus side once again, but struggled in the morning. They opened lower, barely held support, then came on to retest the highs but couldn’t get through.

They pulled back once again, then backed and filled and narrowed to the apex of intraday wedges on the SPX & NDX. During the last half hour the indices exploded to the upside, took out the 2-day highs, closing right near the session highs and rally highs going away.

Net on the day the Dow was up 44.51 at 10,611.84, right at the high for the day. The S&P 500 at 1150.24, also at its high, was up 4.63. The Nasdaq 100 gained 28.84 to 1923.81 up 6.46, also closing at the high for the day going away.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and ahead by about 15 to 11 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2.5 to 1 positive on New York and 4 to 3 positive on Nasdaq. Total volume on New York was a light 950 million shares, and Nasdaq traded 2.1 billion shares.

TheTechTrader.com board today was pretty mixed, with not many point-plus movers. In fact, there was only one stock up by as much as 2 points and that was the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) at 89.75, up 2.08. On the downside InterMune (ITMN) gave back some of its recent gains at 37.05, down 1.34, and American International Group (AIG) lost 1.13 to 35.11

Those were the only point-plus movers on out board today.

Large fractional gainers of note: Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) at 18.08 up 56 cents, Incyte Corp (INCY) at 13.07 up 65 cents to a multi-year high, and NuVasive, Inc. (NUVA) 45.20 up another 75 cents.

Skechers USA (SKX) advanced 45 cents to 33.69, Sequenom (SQNM) 28 cents to 8.01, Origin Agritech (SEED) 22 cents at 11.09, and portfolio position Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CYCC) 17 cents to 2.81.

Fractional losers included Telestone Technologies (TSTC) at 19.21 down 57 cents, Xyratex Ltd. (XRTX) at 17.25 down 60 cents, Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) at 30.88 down 61 cents, and China Agritech (CAGC) at 28.64 down 56 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices dropped early, but then backed and filled and narrowed to the apex of intraday wedges before breaking out late in the session and running to new session highs. Support held all day today, the patterns turned out to be bullish consolidations, and the indices continued to press higher.

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