The stock market indices had a really spectacular morning, in particular, where they gapped up huge, ran hard, tested the 2145 area on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1200 area on the S&P 500, and backed off. They came on again, with the NDX making slightly new highs, but the S&P 500 failed to confirm. In fact, on four occasions they could not get through the 1200 area, reaching today’s high at 1200.29.

In the afternoon the NDX backed off on profit-taking and closed near the afternoon low as did the SPX, but that wasn’t too far off the highs and they still ended up preserving the vast majority of the gains for the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 173.35 at 11,181.23, with a high just a few cents under 11,200. The S&P 500 was up 18.09 at 1196.68, with a high of 1200.29, and the Nasdaq 100 up 34.77 at 2134.77, about 10 points off its high.

Advance-declines were about 4 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 6 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of 970 million shares. Nasdaq traded right at 2 billion and had about a 4 to 1 positive ratio. So, a good day on Nasdaq, in particular.

TheTechTrader.com board was vastly higher today with many multiple point gainers. A percentage leader today was Exelixis, Inc. (EXEL) up 1.51 to 6.23 on heavy volume. Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) jumped 2.36 to 38.23 on positive news, and Chart Industries Inc. (GTLS) was up another 1.27 to 27.97.

In addition, Apple Inc. (AAPL) advanced 7.93 to 308.43, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 5.82 to 164.17, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.46 to 167.65, and SIGA Technologies, Inc. (SIGA) 1.41 to 12.68, a nice day there. Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (JAZZ) was up 1.27 to 16.32, and Cree Inc. (CREE) 1.39 to 57.68.

On the downside, the ultra-short ETFs got hammered. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) was down 2.75 to 45.33, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) 1.24 to 20.52, and the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 1.81 to 23.07.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up sharply, ran hard in the morning, reached their session highs for the most part just before lunch hour, and then in the afternoon peeled back some of their gains, but held onto the vast majority of them.

The session ended with a very nice day for the indices. As a matter of fact, they closed above the moving averages on the hourly charts, a very positive factor. Perhaps the end of the 6-day decline was enough to cause the indices to snapback here and perhaps start a new minor up-channel.

We’ll have to see what kind of follow-through we get tomorrow and Monday. Tomorrow TheTechTrader is in Las Vegas for the Traders Expo, where I’ll be speaking at 5:30 pm. All are welcome for presentation at the expo or live online.

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