The stock market indices ended the week with another sharp gain and a nice follow-up to yesterday’s rally. The day started out with a gap up and a strong run to resistance. The indices then backed off, held successfully, and came on again. The S&P 500 made nominal new highs, but the Nasdaq 100 did not. In the last couple hours they moved sideways in a flag-type fashion and were able to hold onto the gains for the day. No Friday profit-taking.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 61.95 at 12,130.45, the S&P 500 up 13.78 at 1319.88, closing right new resistance at 1320, and the Nasdaq 100 up 32.98 at 2346.29.

Advance-declines were 5 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 4 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 6 1/2 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of 945 million. Nasdaq traded about 1.9 billion shares, and had about a 5 1/2 to 1 positive ratio on advancing volume over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board had probably one of its best days of the year. There were unequivocal strong gains today. Leading the way, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) came out with blow-out earnings, up 7.58 to 31.43. AboveNet, Inc. (ABVT) gained 4.73 to 66.54, IPG Photonics Corporation (IPGP) 5.43 to 57.29, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 3.16 to 43.43, Acacia Research Corporation (ACTG) 4.65 to 28.34, True Religion Apparel Inc. (TRLG) 4.04 to 25.01, Hansen Natural Corporation (HANS) 4.31 to 59 even, and Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 3.86 to 76.66.

Many other stocks were up more than a point. They included Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW) up 2.03 to 40.65, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) up 3.18 to 24.85, ARM Holdings PLC (ARMH) 1.78 to 30.11, Camelot Information Systems Inc. (CIS) 2.47 to 21.84, and Ceradyne Inc. (CRDN) 2.39 to 38.96.

IDT Corporation (IDT) snapped back 2.20 to 26.37, and NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) jumped 1.41 to 30.53. Sunrise Senior Living Inc. (SRZ) was up 1.15 to 10.30, TETRA Technologies Inc. (TTI) 1.13 to 13.76, and Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc. (AHT) 1.20 to 10.93.

The oil patch was very strong today, with SandRidge Energy, Inc. (SD) up 1.33 to 10.51, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) 1.66 to 31.19, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) 1.84 to 35.51, Frontier Oil Corp. (FTO) 2.45 to 28.01, Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) 1.36 to 10.42, and FX Energy Inc. (FXEN) 1.86 to 11.73.

There were many other gainers today, too many to mention.

On the downside there was very little to speak of, although American International Group, Inc. (AIG) did lose 1.89 to 38.54.

The ultra-short ETFs got slaughtered, with the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) down 2.85 to 38.91, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 2.17 to 31.51, Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 1.75 to 39.27, and Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 1.36 to 37 even.

Stepping back and reviewing the stock market, the indices gapped up, ran hard in the morning to resistance, backed off but held, and then came on again to retest the highs and stayed right near there into the close.

A very strong finish to the session and the week, but that doesn’t exclude the fact that we had a sharp sell-off midweek, and may have broken the back of the trend. What this may have been, and we’ll know more next week, was nothing more than a technical snapback to test resistance.

We’ll have to see if we get an upside follow-through, or whether they roll them over and extend the down trend.

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