The stock market indices managed to squeeze out gains again today after a sharp early morning drop took them down below support, but they rallied back just as sharply, if not more so. By mid-morning and early afternoon they were consolidating quietly before the FOMC announcement. After that they gyrated around but held support, and then took off in the last hour. The last 15-minute drop pulled them back from the highs, but still they closed up on the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 10.06 at 11,020.40, the S&P 500 up 4.45 at 1169.77, and the Nasdaq 100 up 14.57 at 2041.55.

Advance-declines were about 16 to 13 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and about 15 to 11 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little less than 2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume under 900 million shares. Very quiet today. Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion and had a 15 to 4 positive ratio, or nearly 4 to 1.

TheTechTrader.com board had a spectacular day. Many of the high flyers led the way, with Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 3.18 to 298.54, hitting 299.50, an all-time high earlier in the day. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) advanced 3.45 to 156.48, Goldman Sachs (GS) 3.01 to 155.21, Interactive Intelligence, Inc. (ININ) 4.73 to 22.91, and Rightnow Technologies Inc. (RNOW) 3.34 to 23.48.

In addition, Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) jumped 4.37 to 17.35, OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OGXI) 2.86 to 18.69, American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) 1.55 to 38.05, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) 1.26 to 45.02, and Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (ASTI) 1.05 to 5.62, a big percentage gain there.

Other standouts today were OfficeMax Inc. (OMX) up 1.33 to 15.68, and Pain Therapeutics Inc. (PTIE) up 1.16 to 7.41, a good percentage gain there as well. Geron Corporation (GERN) was up 70 cents to 6.37, DAQQ New Energy Corp. American (DQ) 92 cents to 12.05, Myriad Genetics Inc. (MYGN) 1.74 to 18.66, and DayStar Technologies Inc. (DSTI) 54 cents to 2.23.

Additional standouts today included Kandi Technologies, Corp (KNDI), up 21 cents to 5.23, closing at a 7-month high. China MediaExpress Holdings, Inc. (CCME) was up 98 cents to 12.26, and ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (ATPG) 1.51 to 16.81.

On the downside, Cree Inc. (CREE), one of our Boxer Shorts, lost 1.05 to 52.53. Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) gave back 91 cents to 20.63 today, coming off its new all-time high yesterday. United States Steel Corp. (X) was down 79 cents to 44.83, along with JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (JKS) down 88 cents to 29.75.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened mixed, and then dropped sharply, but recovered very sharply, plateaued mid-day, and then rallied in the afternoon after the FOMC announcement to new 2010 highs!

We’ll see how it goes. So far the rally goes on and has not been stymied yet, but we’re seeing signs of technical deterioration in this range, and the market’s getting long in the tooth.

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