The stock market indices had another up day, but had a rough start when Apple (AAPL) gapped down on the announcement Steve Jobs’ departure. The stock went down as much as 22 points to 326 at one point early on, but jumped right back and ran up to the 340 range, reaching as high as 345, or 19 points off the low, before it pulled back to 340.65. It was still down 7.83 on the day, but not as bad as one would think, and afterhours the company announced fantastic blow-out earnings, gaining another $5.00 to make up nearly all the losses.

So, it was a very interesting day today. The indices started out with a sharp move down, and then bounced around in the morning, consolidated, and then moved higher the rest of the session. With 15 minutes to go, they were at the highs for the day before they backed off into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 50.55 at 11,837.93, the S&P 500 up 1.78 at 1295.02, and the Nasdaq 100 up 5.36 at 2328.79 with a low about 30 points below that.

Advance-declines were 16 to 13 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and negative by about 71 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 6 to 5 negative on New York on total volume of 1.2 billion. Nasdaq traded just over 2 billion shares and had a 11 to 6 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed. Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO), a swing trade pick of ours, was up 1.92 to 51.72. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) snapped back 1.23 to 47.36, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (JAZZ) jumped 95 cents to 23.30, Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) rose 1.05 to 43.55, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) gained 2.50 to 191.25.

Other gainers of note, Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARIA) advanced 34% and closed at 7.03, up 1.78. Datalink Corp. (DTLK) ran 29%, or 1.32, to 5.86. Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF), a swing pick of ours, hit our target, jumped to as high as 9.90 before closing at 9.33, up 15%, or 1.21. iBio, Inc. Common Stock (IBIO) ran up 87 cents to 5.78, an 18% gain. Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (PSTI) jumped 56 cents to 3.28, a 21% gain, and USA Technologies Inc. (USAT) was up 33 cents to 1.69, a 25% gain there.

Other gainers of note included Sangamo Biosciences Inc. (SGMO) up 64 cents to 8.62, and Sify Technologies Limited (SIFY) up 44 cents to 3.32. JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (JKS) was up 2.08 to 28.70, and LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (LDK) 1.28 to 13.38, both in a very hot solar sector today. Satcon Technology Corporation (SATC) gained 37 cents to 5.50, TranS1, Inc. (TSON) 35 cents to 3.81, Uranerz Energy Corp. (URZ) 35 cents to 4.69, and Flotek Industries Inc. (FTK) 43 cents to 6.28.

On the downside, other than Apple Inc. (AAPL), the only other point-plus loser was Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG), down 2.19 to 232.70. In addition, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) was down 1.01 to 30.56.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down and moved sharply lower, tested support, bounced back very nicely today, and closed not far off the session highs with gains on the session. A very resilient market.

At this point key support is 2300 NDX and 1280 SPX. Right now the trend is your friend and the trend is still up.

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