The stock market indices had a sharply higher day, but the majority of that was gained in the first hour. The day started out with a big gap up in the morning, a brief pullback, and then a surge to the session highs by 11:00.

At that point, the indices then consolidated for a couple hours, pulled back midday, and then bounced back and forth into the close on the Nasdaq 100, but with an upward bias on the S&P 500. As a result the SPX had a better afternoon performance, with the NDX closing a little near the session lows, while the SPX was substantially off its lows.

Still, a very strong session. Net on the day, the Dow was up 161.29 at 11,774.59, the S&P 500 up 16.84 at 1273.72, and the Nasdaq 100 up 22.27 at 2225.24.

Advance-declines were positive by nearly 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 4 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of just over 1 billion shares traded. Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion shares and had a 12 to 7 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher today. Leading the way today were several multi-point gainers, including Chart Industries Inc. (GTLS) up 5.64 to 48.72, Apple Inc. (AAPL) 4.63 to 334.64, and Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 3.09 to 47.85. Frequency Electronics Inc. (FEIM) jumped 1.34 to 10.47, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) 2.11 to 23.95, and Diodes Incorporated (DIOD) 2.55 to 31.58.

Oil patch stocks were firm, with Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) up 1.39 to 33.80, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) 1.55 to 29.61, Junior oil Hercules Offshore, Inc. (HERO) up 41 cents to 5.64, and Alon USA Energy, Inc. (ALJ) 80 cents to 12.05.

Coal stock Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) was up 2.43 to 70.10.

Among other gainers of note, Coffee Holding Co. Inc. (JVA) was up 1.50 to 5.95, a big percentage gain there. ShoreTel, Inc. (SHOR) gained 1.04 to 7.69, Manitex International, Inc. (MNTX) 76 cents to 6.38, Web.com Group, Inc. (WWWW) 70 cents to 13.48, Capital Senior Living Corp. (CSU) 53 cents to 9.93, Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc. (VSEA) 2.63 to 44.24, and Flotek Industries Inc. (FTK) 1.61 to 6.88, nearly a 31% gain. Maxygen, Inc. (MAXY) rose 97 cents to 5.08.

In addition, Star Scientific, Inc. (CIGX) had a nice pop at 35 cents to close at 3.25, and Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (AGM) was up 1.22 to 18.76.

On the downside, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) was down 6.56 to 251.66, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) lost 3.73 to 160.97.

Those were the two outstanding losers on the board today.

Ultra-short ETFs got hit today. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) was down 1.15 to 36.48, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 1.40 to 43.62, and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 1.50 to 40.59.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a big gap up at the opening, and exploded across Wednesday’s resistance highs. A brief pullback ensued, but then the indices rocketed through their session highs after the first 90 minutes. At that point they consolidated, pulled back down and retested the support, but held successfully, and bounced on the S&P 500, but the NDX trailed on that last bounce. We’ll have to see what that means in terms of tomorrow’s action.

It was a decidedly positive day with technicals confirming today.

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