The stock market indices were quite volatile today but in narrow ranges for most of the session, although early on they gapped down, rallied back sharply, and then went into a coiling-type pattern for the rest of the session. However, in the last hour after failing to break down through key trend line and price support, they came on strong, especially in the last half hour, rallying sharply into the close and closing at the session highs going away.

Net on the day, the Dow was 130 points off its low, up 38.54 at 10,211.07. The S&P 500 was 14 points off its low, up 4.74 at 1091.60, and the Nasdaq 100 was 36 points off its low, up 17.06 at 1847.15. It was a very nice close for the week.

Technicals were solid, with advance-declines 22 to 8 positive on New York Stock Exchange and about 19 to 7 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of about 1 billion traded, and 7 to 1 positive on Nasdaq on volume of about 1 3/4 billion shares.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly higher. Several of our portfolio positions had an excellent session today. Leading the way today was Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 3.00 at 253.51, closing not far off the session highs and 6.00 off its low. Cree Inc. (CREE) jumped from 61.75 to 65.00, closing at 64.28, up 1.52. Portfolio position Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) was up 1.07 at 18.05, and China Agritech Inc. (CAGC) 1.07 at 12.06.

Several other point-plus gainers included Transocean Ltd. (RIG) snapping back from recent losses, up 2.58 at 46.85, but on lower volume. Delcath Systems Inc. (DCTH) snapped back 1.02 at 10.22, Netlist Inc. (NLST) jumped 56 cents, a 33% gain today, to 2.45, and ArcSight (ARST) on positive earnings was up 3.58 to 23.40, a very solid gain there today. Those were the point-plus gainers on our board, although there were many other large gainers.

On the downside, there were no point-plus losers, but fractional losers include several of the ETFs. IPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) dropped 72 cents to 28.85, and Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 68 cents to 46.53. Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) lost 72 cents at 52.16. Other than that there were just fractional losses.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down at the opening, made session lows early on and then rallied quite sharply in the morning. They backed off sharply and then backed and filled the rest of the day, narrowing in coiling-type action, before coming on in the last hour when they broke out through the tops of the coil patterns. They exploded into the close at the session highs going away, over 1091 on the S&P 500 and over 1847 on the NDX.

It was definitely a solid day for the bulls for today. However, the Nasdaq 100 still remains below the major declining tops line going back to the April high. The S&P 500, however, has slightly taken out that line, and it should be interesting to see if we get confirmation follow-through from the NDX next week or if this is just a nominal breakout before they take them lower. It could be a very interesting and key week next week.

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