The stock market indices had a very big day to start the week, including a huge gap up at the opening. However, they did back off rather dramatically and gave back a good piece of the early gains. They held steady around midday, turned it around, and rallied up to test the highs on the Nasdaq 100, and backed off to consolidate late afternoon only to come on once again in the last 30-40 minutes to explode into the close, closing at the highs for the day going away.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 128.21 at 12,569.79. The S&P 500 was up 14.10 at 1345.20. The Nasdaq 100 was up 36.46 at 2372.54. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 closed at the exact session highs.

Advance-declines were better than 3 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 2 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of a heavy 1.5 billion shares. Nasdaq traded nearly 2 2/3 billion shares and had about a 2 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher and significantly so on many of the issues. Apple Inc. (AAPL) jumped 10.42 to 347.83, and Ashland Inc. (ASH), which we traded today, was up 7.30 to 68.34.

Multiple-point gainers included Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) up 3.75 to 66.43, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) up 2.13 to 35.31, and Sequans Communications S.A. Ame (SQNS) 3.87 to 19.17, a big gain there. SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) was up 1.82 to 58.11, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.40 to 168.93, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.07 to 140.73, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 2.56 to 196.69.

Among other large gainers of note, Yongye International, Inc. (YONG) rose 1.58 to 5.33, or 42%, FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCEL) 44 cents to 1.90, or 30%, Eltek Ltd. (ELTK) 30 cents to 1.47, or 25.6%, SmartHeat Inc. (HEAT) 35 cents to 1.82, or 24%, FiberTower Corporation (FTWR) 33 cents to 1.85, or 22%,

In addition, Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OPTR) gained 1.53 to 14.51, or 12%; Genomics 1.65 to 15.90, or 11.5%; VASCO Data Security International Inc. (VDSI) 1.22 to 11.94, or 11%; Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX) 84 cents to 8.25, or 11%; and Camelot Information Systems Inc. (CIS) 1.79 to 18.49, or 10.7%. PriceSmart Inc. (PSMT) was up 3.93 to 46.65, or 9.2%, and Quepasa (QPSA) 72 cents to 8.58, or 9%.

On the downside, MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO), which had run up sharply in the last week or so, took some profits today, down 1.20 to 32.92.

Ultra-short ETFs got hammered today, with the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 1.29 to 42.02, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) 1.49 to 33.17, and the ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) 1.77 to 42.46.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up big today, pulled back when the Consumer Confidence Index showed lower levels, but then stabilized late morning, midday, and then came on again to surge into the close with a spectacular gain for the day on good volume and great technicals. The bulls got the bears on the run today.

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