The stock market indices started out with a down move, tested support, and then rallied pretty much for the rest of the day until the last 45 minutes when big gains were had and profit-taking set in. The indices rolled over, with the Nasdaq 100 backing off from 2267 to 2256.

Net on the day, the Dow was 75.57 at 12,124.51, 60 points off its high. The S&P 500 was up 9.44 at 1289.00, 5 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 3.76 at 2256.65, 11 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 19 to 11 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 16 to 10 positive on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was 3 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of a light 870 million shares. Nasdaq traded over 1.66 billion and had an 11 to 6 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher today, with a lot of nice gainers on our board today. Nothing spectacular except Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA), which had a monster move today, up 3.64 to 12.14, or 43%. Orsus Xelent Technologies Inc. (ORS) rose 87 cents to 2.86, or 46%.

Lower priced stocks that had big gains today were Accelr8 Technology Corp. (AXK) up 92 cents to 7.17, Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARIA) up 46 cents to 9.50, Majesco Entertainment Co. (COOL) 33 cents to 4.01, Double Eagle Petroleum Co. (DBLE) 1.16 to 8.13, EasyLink Services International Corporation (ESIC) 77 cents to 4.75, ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. (IMOS) 92 cents to 9.72, and Titan Machinery, Inc. (TITN) 3.30 to 30.40.

Larger cap stocks were firm, though not particularly so, with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) gaining 1.63 to 189.68 and Goldman Sachs (GS) up 1.94 to 133.53. In addition, Glu Mobile, Inc. (GLUU) was up 35 cents to 4.77, LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) 2.87 to 44.40, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.05 to 22.48, and Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) 50 cents to 27.62.

On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 75 cents to 331.49, and was relatively weak today. Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) dropped 1.92 to 51.29, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) 1.11 to 37.39.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) lost 1.34 to 49.28, and was the only point-plus loser in the ultra-short sector.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened lower and bounced after holding yesterday’s late lows, and rallied for most of the rest of the day, although slower in midafternoon. With about 45 minutes to go they reached their session highs, but rolled over rather sharply into the close on profit taking.

Still, it was a positive session, reversing six losses straight in a row for the Dow.

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