Happy New Year! The stock market indices started out the year with a bang with a big gap up, ran sharply higher in the morning, reached their highs just before noon at around the 2268 area on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1276 area on the S&P 500.

At that point they start to drift back, and then accelerate a little bit lower in the afternoon, bounced late in the day, but couldn’t hold it, and then backed off. But still, a nice net gain.

Net on the day, the Dow closed up 93.24 at 11,670.75, although about 41 points off its high. The S&P 500 closed up 14.23 at 1271.87, about 5 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 was up 36.37 at 2254.23, about 14 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 3 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and better than that on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was almost 6 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of over 1 billion shares traded. Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion and had an almost 5 to 3 positive volume ratio.

So, a very positive day on Wall Street.

TheTechTrader.com board, and particularly large cap stocks on it, had a big day. Leading the way, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 7.01 to 329.57, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) up 4.22 to 184.22. Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) jumped 4.96 to 58.12. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) snapped back 10.97 to 223.63 on short covering. Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 4.89 to 173.05, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 7.60 to 57.50, and SuperMedia Inc. (SPMD), a swing trade of ours, up 1.42 to 10.13.

In addition, Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) gained 1.10 to 17.16, and Avalon Rare Metals, Inc. Ordina (AVL) 1.59 to 7.83, both in the rare-earth group, which was very strong today.

Other gainers of note included IDT Corporation (IDT) jumped 97 cents to 26.62, snapping back more than two points off its low. Cree Inc. (CREE) jumped 1.41 to 67.30. Those were the multiple-point gainers today.

On the downside, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) down 1.12 to 36.49, was the only point-plus loser on our board today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a big gap up at the opening that spurred the market on to strong gains by midday, reaching their highs at 2268 NDX and 1276 SPX, but they gave back a chunk of it in the afternoon, still closing up very nicely, holding onto some strong gains for the day.

A very nice way to start the year.

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