The stock market indices had an excellent and very bullish session today. They started out with a sharp gap up, ran sharply in the morning with the S&P 500 taking out yesterday’s highs, although at that point the Nasdaq 100 did not. In the following several hours they pulled back in a very orderly, falling wedge-type fashion, which resulted in a breakout eventually in the early afternoon and a rally into the close.

The indices closed near the highs for the day going away, with the Dow up 273.35 at 10,172.60, the S&P 500 up 31.15 at 1086.84, and the Nasdaq 100 up 51.17 at 1830.09.

Advance-declines definitely confirmed today’s rally as the New York Stock Exchange had 2709 advancing issues and 382 decliners, a ratio of better than 6 1/2 to 1 on 1.7 million shares. Advances on Nasdaq were 2260 to 409 declines, about 5 1/2 to 1 positive on 2.1 million shares traded. Up/down volume on New York was a little better than 2 1/2 to 1 positive, and on Nasdaq was 5 1/2 to 1 positive.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly higher and some of them sharply so. Leading the way today, Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI) was up 2.53 at 35.90, Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) 2.22 at 52.88, and portfolio position Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) up 1.59 to 17.99.

Xyratex Ltd. (XRTX) advanced 1.01 at 14.99, PROLOR Biotech, Inc. (PBTH) 1.04 at 8.29, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) 1.37 at 38.32, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) 1.36 at 17.79, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 1.27 at 27.48.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 1.96 at 22.60 today.

On the downside, the ultrashorts led the way, with the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) down 5.69 to 47.21 and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) off 1.56 to 15.72. The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) lost 1.62 at 15.29, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 1.61 at 29.57. All other losers were down just under a dime, very small fractions. This spoke volumes about the breadth of today’s rally, which was excellent.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a strong up-day with very good internals today. We’ll see if we get a follow-through tomorrow as the S&P 500 closed right at its 6-week declining topslines, and if there’s key overhead resistance above that up around the 1100-05 zone.

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