The stock market indices managed to gain today, but they did have a quick, late sell-off at the end of the day. However, they started out with a gap up and a move to new rally highs. They backed off and retested, and then jumped to more new highs on the Nasdaq 100, but the S&P 500 did not cooperate, and on at least 4-5 occasions today failed to take out and stay above 1300.

Late in the afternoon after consolidating, they tried again, and with 15 minutes to go were trading at the session highs at 2336 on the NDX and at 1301 on the SPX. A quick late sell-off due to Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) earnings took the indices back under 12,000 on the Dow and under 1300 on the S&P 500.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 4.39 at 11,989.83, the S&P 500 up 2.91 at 1299.54, and the Nasdaq 100 up 16.88 at 2330.07.

Advance-declines, however, were 17 to 13 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and only positive by less than 100 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 3 to 2 positive on New York on total volume of 980 million. Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion shares and had nearly a 3 to 2 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board had a very good day with the vast majority of stocks up today. Multiple point-plus gainers included Under Armour, Inc. (UA) up 5.91 to 59.79, Cirrus Logic Inc. (CRUS) up 3.35 to 21.27, Amedisys Inc. (AMED) up 2.93 to 36.23, Quepasa Corp. (QPSA) 2.10 to 14.80, Gentex Corp. (GNTX) 2.62 to 33.50, and Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP) 4.93 to 56.74.

In addition, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN) advanced 1.17 to 16.44, Teradyne Inc. (TER) 1.72 to 16.35, Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) 86 cents to 19.94, Asia Entertainment & Resources Ltd. (AERL) 97 cents to 11.82, and Arctic Cat Inc. (ACAT) 2.40 to 16.12, a big gainer today. Bassett Furniture Industries Inc. (BSET) rose 1.87 to 6.42, a 41% gain there, and China MediaExpress Holdings, Inc. (CCME) 3.25 to 22.81, with Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (CY) up 1.63 to 22.04.

Among other gainers, Glu Mobile, Inc. (GLUU) closed up 44 cents to 3.11, Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI) 1.01 to 10.94, EnergySolutions, Inc (ES) 40 cents to 6.06, Buckeye Technologies Inc. (BKI) 1.86 to 26.97, Approach Resources, Inc. (AREX) 1.29 to 26.27, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 2.63 to 48.49, Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU) 2.19 to 70.30, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.72 to 164.03, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) 7.78 to 225.52, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 3.95 to 55.46.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was up 9.06 to 184.45 ahead of earnings, but in aftermarket trading was down about 17 points off that level.

On the downside, Gold Resource Corp (GORO), was the only point-plus loser on our board today, down 1.26 to 22.40.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, pulled back to retest successfully, bounced sharply and made new highs by midday on Nasdaq 100, but failed to confirm on the S&P 500. Late in the session they did make new highs for the day, but ended up pulling back late at the close to pare back the gains. Still, a positive session in an ongoing positive market.

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