The stock market indices started the day with a strong upmove right from the get-go. After a brief pullback, they came on very strong, hit more new 2010 highs at 1214 on the S&P 500 and over 2040 on the Nasdaq 100. They then had a strong late morning pullback, which held secondary support and more important support at around 1208 SPX. Then they bounced right back up to the highs, double-topped, rolled over hard, and with about 15 minutes to go bounced sharply and held onto some gains for the day.

Net on the day, the Dow closed at 11,144.57, up 21.46. The S&P 500 at 1211.67 gained up 1.02, and the NDX at 2038.64 was up 9.82.

Advance-declines, however, were negative in a technical divergence by about 90 issues on New York Stock Exchange, and positive by about 400 issues on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, mostly narrowly so. There were very few point-plus gainers or losers on our board today. Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG), however, snapped back 1.32 to 16.80.

Junior biotechs had a strong session today. Dynavax Technologies Corporation (DVAX) jumped 28 cents to 1.66, up 20% today. Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IDIX) at 4.41 was up 33 cents, or 8%, and Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. (CPRX) at 2.02 gained 40 cents, or 25%.

Encorium Group (ENCO) at 4.72 was up 62 cents, or 15%. Rexahn Pharmaceuticals (RNN) at 2.59 gained 44 cents, or 20 1/2%, and Energy XXI Limited (EXXI) jumped 1.18 to 22.38.

The star of the day today was STEC, Inc. (STEC) at 13.69 up 1.79, a 15% gain.

Other gainers of note, L&L Energy (LLEN) was up 41 cents to 13.08, Dendreon (DNDN) 52 cents to 39.64 reaching over 40 at one point, CROCS Inc. (CROX) 23 cents to 10.78, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 79 cents to 20.87.

On the downside there were no point-plus losers. The fractional losers across the board were Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE), which dropped 61 cents to 20.16, and Brigham Exploration (BEXP), which gave back 30 cents to 18.33 in a weaker oil sector. In addition, Houston American Energy Corp. (HUSA) lost 39 cents in that group at 13.30.

Junior bio-tech ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. (ZIOP) was down 38 cents to 5.32, Pharmacyclics (PCYC) 28 cents to 8.18, and Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. (KLIC) 61 cents to 8.76.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, gave back all of it on the S&P 500, half of it on the NDX, and then rallied back to retest the highs, but rolled over before bouncing into the close. They ended the day slightly to the plus side at new 2010 highs but with questionable technicals. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow on options expiration day.

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