The stock market indices rallied back from early losses and closed not far off the session highs, and not far off the 2 1/2 year highs on the S&P 500. The day started out with backing and filling action in the first 15-20 minutes, and then a plunge taking the Nasdaq 100 from 2320 down to 2298. The SPX dropped from 1304 to 1295.

At that point they began a 3-wave rally back, a sharp one that recaptured the early levels on the indices. They then went sideways and consolidated for a few hours. When two tests of support held, the indices rallied in the afternoon and took out the early highs, and then went to new session highs only to rollover in the last 15 minutes. Still, they ended the day with gains.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 20.29 at 12,062.26, the S&P 500 up 3.07 at 1307.10, and the Nasdaq 100 up 1.98 at 2323.07.

Advance-declines were about 16 to 13 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and nearly flat on Nasdaq with just 10 more issues gaining today. Up/down volume was about 3 to 2 positive on New York on total volume of about 975 million. Nasdaq traded about 1.9 billion shares and had an 11 to 8 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was active. Many issues were higher, but the ones that were lower were mostly fractionally lower other than a couple issues which got hit hard today. Leading the way was Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) up 10.32 to 239.22, Shutterfly, Inc. (SFLY) up 6.26 to 40.57, Open Text Corp. (OTEX) 5.45 to 56.25, Brinks Co. (BCO) 2.50 to 30.17, Brightpoint Inc. (CELL) 2.78 to 12.30, and Abiomed Inc. (ABMD) 2.18 to 12.30.

In addition, Hansen Medical, Inc. (HNSN) gained 40% to 2.21, up 63 cents. Derma Sciences Inc. (DSCI) jumped 2.32 to 8.99, Silicon Graphics International Corp. (SGI) 2.82 to 13.72, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) 4.82 to 37.78, Evergreen Energy, Inc. (EEE) 37 cents to 3.64, and SFN Group, Inc. (SFN) 1.56 to 11.97. TravelCenters of America LLC (TA) had an excellent follow-through session, up 2.72 to 11.29.

Among other gainers of note, BroadSoft, Inc. (BSFT) was up 3.45 to 36.13, following up on yesterday’s big game. Clinical Data, Inc. (CLDA) was up another 1.91 to 31.67. Dice Holdings, Inc. (DHX) advanced 75 cents to 15.95, Oplink Communications Inc. (OPLK) 1.16 to 26.17, Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (SBH) 1.74 to 14.37, Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI) 1.02 to 15.61, Sky-mobi Limited (MOBI) 1.03 to 8.39, and Double Eagle Petroleum Co. (DBLE) 93 cents to 9.43. DepoMed Inc. (DEPO) rose 67 cents to 10.00, and Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (PLX) 49 cents to 10.44.

On the downside, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) got crushed after recent earnings, down 9.17 to 43.59, cracking key support today. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) lost 1.26 to 51.99 in the soft rare-earth group, and China MediaExpress Holdings, Inc. (CCME) got hammered for another 5.52 to 11.09 on negative rumors.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down sharply in the morning, rallied back sharply in late morning, and then consolidated midday before a late afternoon rally brought them to new highs, nearly double-topping on the SPX at the prior high, and then backing off in the last 15 minutes.

Still a positive session and the rally rolls on.

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