The stock market indices had a very strong up-day today. Most of the gains were had in the morning, and the afternoon was spent moving back and forth in large swings, but they ended up very positive on the session.

The day started out with a thrust to the upside as the Nasdaq 100 ran up from 2385 to 2405 and the S&P 500 from 1337 up to 1349. The NDX came down and retraced a portion of the gains, but the S&P 500 held up better at that point. The indices snapped back to retest the highs, just falling short on the S&P 500 and by several points on the NDX. They pulled back again in the last 45 minutes only to snapback in the last five minutes. Still, a very successful day.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 115.49 at 12,595.37, the S&P 500 up 11.99 at 1347.24, and the Nasdaq 100 up 12.31 at 2396.04.

Advance declines were 22 to 8 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 16 to 9 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 3 to 1 positive on New York with total volume around 900 million. Nasdaq traded over 2 billion today and had a 3 to 1 positive ratio on advancing volume over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board had several gainers. Leading by far was II-VI Inc. (IIVI) with spectacular earnings, up 11.10 to 59.17. W&T Offshore Inc. (WTI) jumped 4.23 to 27.80, and Kindred Healthcare Inc. (KND), which we traded, 4.32 to 28.55. Endocyte, Inc. (ECYT) advanced 2.39 to 11.88, Healthstream Inc. (HSTM) 1.36 to 9.60, Ultra Clean Holdings Inc. (UCTT) 1.30 to 11.58, and Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) 2.59 to 14.03, reaching as high as 14.72 during the day and hitting our swing trade target on almost 8 million shares. OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) gained 1.31 to 34.63, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) 4.88 to 52.92.

In addition, Ku6 Media Co., Ltd. (KUTV) was up 99 cents to 6.56, Flotek Industries Inc. (FTK) 51 cents to 952, and Sify Technologies Limited (SIFY) 38 cents to 7.22. Swing trade Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (SIMO) jumped 64 cents to 11.74, tagging 12.09 at one point, and Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) was up 77 cents to 25.59.

On the downside, there were a few big losers today. Leading the way was Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) down 14.98 to 86.02. It had a big reversal day there after a very long run over the last couple months. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) lost 7.71 to 264.94, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 3.12 to 182.30, and Apple Inc. (AAPL) 2.59 to 359.42. You can see that large-cap stocks had a tough day today.

In addition, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) dropped 1.22 to 71.86 and VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) gave back 2.70 to 23.92 in a big reversal off the high of 27.75 earlier. Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) was down 1.15 to 33.45, and Ultratech, Inc. (UTEK) 1.47 to 30.91 after a big run this week.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, backed off midday, and then came on again in early afternoon only to back off in the last hour and then firm up into the close.

It was kind of a back-and-forth day today. Perhaps a consolidation day after an early start. We’ll see if the rally wants to still continue. The only negative about today was fairly low volume, but still strong technicals confirming the move as 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.