The stock market indices opened with a bang today on big gaps up, ran up sharply to new rally highs, and backed off mid-day to test. When that was successful, they came on again in the afternoon and went to new highs on the Nasdaq 100, but did not do so on the S&P 500, and then backed off in the last five minutes to peel back from the highs, but still a positive gain.

Net of the day, the Dow was up 81.36 at 10,544.13. The S&P 500 was up 12.35 at 1121.90, and Tthe Nasdaq 100 up 29.33 at 1921.67.

Advance-declines were 3 1/2 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 4 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 6 1/2 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of 931 million shares. Nasdaq had a positive ratio of about 7 to 1 positive with a total volume of 1.8 billion shares traded.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was vastly higher today. Large-cap leaders included Goldman Sachs (GS) up 3.98 at 154.37 and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 3.63 at 267.04. Cree Inc. (CREE) jumped 1.31 at 50.04, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 2.63 at 145.07, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 1.59 at 37.65.

Other point-plus gainers included current swing-trade pick Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD), up 1.14 at 12.43. Blue Coat Systems Inc. (BCSI) gained 94 cents at 21.90, Amtech Systems Inc. (ASYS) 74 cents at 15.67 and Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) up 60 cents at 28.15.

Other gainers of note, GTSI Corp. (GTSI) advanced 1.71 at 6.90, a large gain for a low-priced stock, as did Gentium S.p.A (GENT) up 76 cents at 6.42. Xenoport, Inc. (XNPT) jumped 1.36 at 7.55, up 22% today, with Sourcefire, Inc. (FIRE) up 1.69 at 28.15, Xerox Corp. (XRX) up 69 cents at 9.81, JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (JKS) up 2.01 at 26.46, and Georgia Gulf Corp. (GGC) up 1.63 at 16.79.

In addition, VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) gained 1.01 at 11.16, Valmont Industries, Inc. (VMI) 66 cents at 70.51, and RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (RXII) 40 cents at 2.66 in the low-priced sector.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, pulled back, held the gaps and price support, came on again in the afternoon only to pull back in the last five minutes, but held most of the gains for the day. Nice start to the week as key overhead resistance lies just above.

It will be very interesting to see what the market can do now. The NDX was slightly more positive today as a result of Microsoft (MSFT) jumping 1.23 today to 25.08.

It's a key point for the indices, as we're also coming to options expiration weekend. The third week of September is often a tough one for the indices, so it’s going to be interesting to see how the indices can fare and hold on here with all these gains they made recently.

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