The stock market indices had the best gains in nearly two months. They gapped up big and ran hard in the morning, backed and filled the rest of the morning to consolidate, then went higher in the afternoon reaching the session highs with about an hour to go. They then pulled back in the last hour to pare back some of the gains, but, nevertheless, it was a very strong session for the indices.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 123.14 at 12,076.11, the S&P 500 up 16.04 at 1287.87, and the Nasdaq 100 up 28.06 at 2250.34.

Advance-declines were about 5 to one positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 3 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 8 to 1 positive on New York with total volume just over 900 million shares. Nasdaq traded just under 1 3/4 billion and had about a 7 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result of today’s action, was vastly higher, with many important gainers today. Leading the way by far and twice highlighted and traded in our Trading Diary today was RiT Technologies Ltd. (RITT), up 5.86 to 8.85. The stock had a spectacular gain today of 196% after forming a partnership with Samsung Fiber Optics.

In addition, E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (DANG) jumped 2.14 to 12.88, up 20%, Orsus Xelent Technologies Inc. (ORS) 1.03 to 6.53, Hanwha SolarOne, Ltd. (HSOL) 89 cents to 6.03, NetQin Mobile Inc. American Dep (NQ) 64 cents to 4.66, and day trade pick Express-1 Expedited Solutions Inc (XPO) 34 cents to 2.53.

Further, Hutchinson Technology Inc. (HTCH) rose 28 cents to 2.35, LML Payment Systems Inc. (LMLP) 33 cents to 3.37, up 11%, Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) 84 cents to 8.88, up 10.5%, RealD Inc. (RLD) 2.08 to 22.99, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (KKD) 80 cents to 8.98, GT Solar International, Inc. (SOLR) 1.16 to 13.35, and Youku.com Inc (YOKU) 2.22 to 29.90.

In the larger-cap sector, Apple Inc. (AAPL) advanced 5.84 to 332.44, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 3.67 to 189.96, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.96 to 54.55, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 2.03 to 50.97, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) 5.87 to 276.77.

On the downside, the ultra-short ETFs got hammered. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 2.74 to 39.71, ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) 1.90 to 45.25, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 1.04 to 48.30.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up big, ran hard in the morning, consolidated by midday, and then ran into the afternoon, reaching their session highs with about an hour to go before backing off into the close.

Nevertheless, it was a big turnaround session, perhaps putting in an important bottom today, at least short-term.

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