The stock market indices continued their rally off last Thursday’s spike lows, as they opened strongly and rallied and stair-stepped their way higher all day. The Dow closed up another 148.65 to 10,896.91, the S&P 500 up 15.88 to 1171.67, and the Nasdaq 100 up 35.10 to 975.58, all the indices closing near their session highs.

The technicals were positive, with advance-declines ahead by 6 to 1 on New York Stock Exchange and by 4 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 7 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of about 1 1/4 billion. Nasdaq traded around 2 1/4 billion and had an 11 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result of today’s action, was mostly higher except for the ultra-shorts. Leading the way again on the upside was Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) up 6.79 to 78.21. Cree Inc. (CREE) jumped 6.20 to 77.54, Apple (AAPL) 5.57 to 262.09, Amazon.com (AMZN) 3.41 to 133.87, and Goldman Sachs Group (GS) 5.23 to 147.20.

RINO International (RINO) advanced 1.22 to 16.22 in a strong Chinese sector along with China Agritech (CAGC) up 1.28 to 15.29 and China Automotive (CAAS) 72 cents to 20.77.

Netlist Inc. (NLST) advanced 60 cents to 3.25 on nearly 4 million shares, the biggest volume in a couple months, and Origin Agritech (SEED) added 36 cents to 8.51. Zoltek Companies (ZOLT) extended yesterday’s gains by another 30 cents to 10.76.

Mindspeed Technologies (MSPD) moved ahead by 51 cents to 10.41, Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) snapped back another 55 cents to 6.29, Delcath Systems (DCTH) advanced another 31 cents to 13.43, and Brigham Exploration (BEXP) was up 93 cents to 18.98 today.

On the downside, Google (GOOG) lost 3.66 to 505.39. In addition, the ETFs were lower with iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) off 1.55 to 24.08, the Direxion Daily Emerging Markets Bear 3x (EDZ) 1.56 to 43.95, the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) 84 cents to 24.36, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3x (TZA) 56 cents to 5.64, and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3x (BGZ) 60 cents to 13.23.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices basically opened higher and stair-stepped their way higher all session closing near the session highs. It was a very positive follow-through session, but now the indices are positioned near formidable overhead resistance around the 1975-80 zone on the NDX and just under the 1175-80 zone on the S&P 500.

We’ll see if we’ll be able to punch through or whether we get a pullback retest at this point.

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