The stock market indices moved down lower early this morning and reached new pullback lows, but then consolidated and stabilized near the 2163 area on the Nasdaq 100 and near the 1204 area on the S&P 500. When that occurred they then reversed and had a strong 5-wave rally the rest of the session. In the last hour they backed and filled and formed flags, but in the last few minutes firmed up again, and closed positive across the board on all indices, with the Dow having the least percentage gain.

Net on the day, the Dow was up just 10.29 at 11,357.04, the S&P 500 up 5.31 at 1218.71, and the Nasdaq 100 up 10.86 at 2187.74.

Advance-declines were better than 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and nearly 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was better than 2 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of 1.1 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion and had about 12 to 7 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, but there weren’t many large gainers today other than Pegasystems Inc. (PEGA), which jumped 5.07 to 31.46. Other gainers of note included Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) up 1.47 to 61.52, Alliance Fiber Optic Products Inc. (AFOP) 1.00 to 11.75, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 1.95 to 318.03.

Among large fractional gainers, VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) was up 90 cents to 15.48, Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) 39 cents to 11.04, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX) 41 cents to 7.54, and Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) 73 cents to 24.13, closing at a new all-time high.

Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (APSG) advanced 78 cents to 33.56, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 69 cents to 42.05.

On the downside, Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) lost 1.77 to 28.97, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) gave back 1.01 to 32.86, and JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (JKS) dropped 1.70 to 33.55. Those were the only point-plus losers on the board.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early but reversed sharply mid-morning, and then had a very strong 5-wave rally that put the indices back in the plus column. They ended the day on a plus note. As of right now, today’s lows are going to be key support to watch going forward at about 2162-63 zone on NDX and the 1204 area on the SPX.

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