The stock market indices had an exceptional day as the bulls certainly roared today. The indices started out with a gap up, ran hard early on, reached resistance levels and backed off to consolidate, but continued its stair-step advance in a steady fashion, closing near the highs for the day going away in a strong surge with strong technicals to confirm the trend today.

The key to today’s action was that S&P 500 resistance at the 1105-6 level was taken out in the afternoon as the indices continued higher. The Nasdaq 100 broke above initial resistance, but closed right at secondary resistance, just under the 1900 range.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 213.88 at 10,404.77, the S&P 500 up 25.60 at 1115.23, and the Nasdaq 100 up 52.00 at 1897.48.

Advance/declines were about 6 to 1 positive with 2640 up and 445 down on the New York Stock Exchange. Up/down volume was 1.1 billion to the upside and just 47 million to the downside, a very strong positive ratio. On Nasdaq the advance/declines were about 4 to 1 positive, and up/down volume about 6 1/2 to 1 positive.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly sharply higher and many stocks were multiple-point gainers today. Leading the way was Google Inc. (GOOG) up 14.80 at 497.99, Cree Inc. (CREE) up 3.58 at 69.83, and Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) up 2.44 at 75.37. Apple Inc. (AAPL) jumped 5.41 to 259.69, Goldman Sachs (GS) 3.46 to 136.90, and Transocean Ltd. (RIG) 3.73 to 48.51, snapping back sharply from recent losses.

Other point-plus gainers included Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) up 3.01 at 126.84, Cirrus Logic (CRUS) up 1.17 at 15.39, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) up 1.81 at 40.59, NetApp, Inc. (NTAP) up 1.46 at 41.38, and portfolio position OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) 1.43 at 20.64.

RINO International Corporation (RINO) jumped 1.36 at 14.54 and Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI) 1.15 at 38.01.

There were many large fractional gainers as well. Those included Ariba (ARBA), up 99 cents at 16.98, portfolio position China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) 83 cents at 19.20, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) 75 cents at 26.74, L & L Energy, Inc. (LLEN) 48 cents at 10.11, and Xyratex Ltd. (XRTX) 72 cents at 16.16. Portfolio position Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) also advanced 43 cents at 19.42.

Stepping back and reviewing the chart patterns, the indices were up from the get-go, and stair-stepped their way sharply higher in a strong rising channel all day, closing at the session highs going away. Fantastic session for the bulls with very strong technicals to confirm the trend. Just ahead, key overhead resistance at 1900 on the NDX and around the 1118-20 zone on the SPX should be tested early tomorrow.

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