The indices had a fantastic start to the week with a huge gap up at the opening due to foreign markets being sharply higher and futures very sharply higher. The indices ran a little bit from there, and then backed and filled the rest of the day until the last 40 minutes or so when they came on and closed near the highs for the day going away. A very impressive showing, leaving big gaps behind on the indices.

Net on the day, the Dow closed at 10,785.97, up 405.40. The S&P 500 was up 48.85 up 1159.72, and the Nasdaq 100 just 3 cents off its high at 1942.61 up 93.17. Huge numbers.

Advance-declines were 3,000 up and 158 down on the New York Stock Exchange, and 2450 up and 328 down on Nasdaq. Tremendous numbers, with a real wide breadth reading. Up/down volume was about 29 to 1 on New York with 1 3/4 billion traded to the upside and only 60 million to the downside. On Nasdaq it was 2.6 billion to the upside and 172 million to the downside, a ratio of about 15 to 1. A very impressive reading.

On TheTechTrader.com board, all stocks were up except one, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN), which fell 9 cents. Leading the way was Baidu Inc. (BIDU) up 55.29 at 694.78, and Google Inc. (GOOG) 28.51 at 521.65. Apple Inc. (AAPL) jumped 18.13 to 259.99, Amazon.com (AMZN) 6.31 to 131.29, and Cree Inc. (CREE) 6.26 to 72.72.

Other point-plus gainers were Delcath Systems Inc. (DCTH), which had a big session at 13.24, up 1.29. China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) at 20.62 was up 1.72, China Agritech Inc. (CAGC) at 14.61 up 1.06, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) at 17.90 up 1.47, Acme Packet Inc. (APKT) at 26.21 up 2.26, and American International Group (AIG) at 40.98 up 2.28.

Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) gained 2.67 to 38.38, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) 2.06 to 23.25, and Northern Oil and Gas Inc. (NOG) 1.50 to 15.29.

In the Chinese sector RINO International Corp. (RINO) also advanced 88 cents to 14.47, and Origin Agritech Limited (SEED) 80 cents to 8.40. A big day for Chinese snapback stocks today.

L&L Energy Inc. (LLEN) also jumped 76 cents to 10.06, Eastman Kodak (EK) 44 cents to 5.88, and ACRA Biopharma (ABIO) 61 cents to 4.89.

On the downside, the ultra-shorts got slaughtered with the Direxion Daily Emerging Markets (EDZ) down 12.01 to 43.41, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 4.17 to 25.08, ProShares UltraShort Real Estate (SRS) 3.81 to 25.25, Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 2.33 to 12.48, Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 2.19 to 13.74, and Direxion Daily Real Estate Bear 3X Shares (DRV) 1.65 to 6.40, a big percentage loss there. Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 1.26 at 6.34.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a huge gap at the opening, a consolidation for most of the rest of the day, and then a rally into the close, closing them near the highs for the day. It was an outstanding session for the indices, as support held all session, and despite the big gap up they gave none of it back. We’ll see what kind of follow-through they get tomorrow.

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