The stock market indices managed to close positive on the day with a late afternoon rush after basically consolidating most of the day. It was a day spent moving back and forth and in fairly narrow ranges. They reached down to retest the lows midday successfully, and then moved steadily higher until they accelerated at the end of the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was still only up 19.68 at 11,382.09. The S&P 500 up 3.18 at 1224.71. Nasdaq 100 down 5.87 at 2191.17.

Advance-declines were 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about a similar amount on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 1/2 to 1 positive on New York with total volume was a light 890 million. Nasdaq traded 1 3/4 billion and had a little less than a 2 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher today. Leading the way, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) snapped back 2.37 to 33.32. Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) was up 92 cents to 17.47, and SuperMedia Inc. (SPMD) 1.15 to 6.80, or 20% today. Finisar Corp. (FNSR) followed up yesterday’s big move with another 97-cent gain at 24.03.

In addition, DryShips (DRYS) jumped 64 cents to 5.88 and broke out. VeriFone Systems, Inc (PAY) with good earnings was up 3.10 to 39.86. STMicroelectronics NV (STM) advanced 74 cents to 10.01, China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources, Inc. (SHZ) 66 cents to 3.11, Cobalt International Energy, Inc. (CIE) 93 cents to 12.41.

Those were some of the better gainers today.

Other gainers of note included Human Genome Sciences Inc. (HGSI) up 60 cents to 24.59. Polypore International Inc. (PPO) jumped 1.00 to 36.12. Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) came back 72 cents to 24.44. Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) was up another 1.51 to 53.94, Acacia Research Corporation (ACTG) 1.12 to 28.47, IDT Corporation (IDT) another 63 cents to 23.78, Local.com Corp. (LOCM) 42 cents to 5.48 on heavy volume today, and Cost Plus Inc. (CPWM) up 85 cents to 9.18.

On the downside, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) was down 2.01 to 41.30. The other ETFs were fractionally changed.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) lost 85 cents to 175.68, and Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) got hit hard for 3.21 to 23.68. Other than that, other stocks were fractionally changed, if changed at all.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices dipped early, rallied back, and then went back and forth in a coiling type fashion. But by midday they began to rally again and closed near the session highs going away as well as the weekly highs and not far from the 2010 highs as well.

So, a good end to a very strong week.

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