The stock market indices started out with a very strong session to begin the week. At the get-go they did back off to test, but immediately held and then came on strong in a 3-wave rally that took the indices up to new rally highs at 1887 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1113 on the S&P 500. A 3-wave decline pulled them back, but it was orderly and held support, and in the last hour they bounced back to set new highs for the entire move at just over 1890 on the NDX, and right at 1115 on the SPX. They closed right at the highs for the day going away.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 100.81 at 10,525.43, the S&P 500 closed up 12.35 at 1115.01, and the Nasdaq 100 up 15.02 at 1890.40.

Advance/declines were 4 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 7 to 1 positive on New York with total volume just under 1 billion. Nasdaq traded just over 2.1 billion, with a nearly 9 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was active and higher. Leading the way today, Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MNTA) was up 4.41 at 26.11, Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) 4.54 at 26.04, Cree Inc. (CREE) 3.45 to 75.63, Valassis Communications Inc. (VCI) 1.74 to 32.79, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) 1.64 to 25.50, IDT Corporation (IDT) 1.55 to 18.82, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) 1.77 to 36.44, and BP Exploration plc (BP) 1.79 at 38.65. Those were the point-plus gainers on our board today.

In addition, fractional gainers included ADTRAN Inc. (ADTN) up 63 cents at 32.92, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 71 cents at 33.08, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA) up 43 cents at 6.34, Cirrus Logic Inc. (CRUS) 72 cents at 20.54, RINO International Corporation (RINO) 43 cents at 14.79, and Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) 56 cents at 20.81.

On the downside, in the ultra-short ETF section, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) got slammed by 2.20 to 29.88. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) lost 83 cents at 22.82, and the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 81 cents at 35.52.

The Ultra-long Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 96 cents at 22.94.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up in the morning, consolidated intraday, backed off early afternoon, then came on strong at the close to have a very strong start to the week.

We’ll see if we get any follow-through tomorrow.

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