The stock market indices had a big session today from the get-go, with the Nasdaq 100 exploding from 2200 to 2247 and the S&P 500 jumping from 1277 to 1296 in the first two and a half hours. The indices backed and filled for a couple hours in flag-like fashion, and then rallied again in the afternoon to new session highs, backed off, and in the last 45 minutes came on again to close not that far off the session highs.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 109.63 at 12,190.01, although that was 27 points off its high. The S&P 500 was up 17.16 at 1295.52, just a couple points off its high, and Nasdaq 100 was up 47.46 at 2251.82, just 2 points off its high.

Advance-decline were about 6 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 21 to 5 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 8 to 1 positive on New York with total volume of a light 840 million shares today. Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion and had a 12 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board had a very big day and was nearly all higher. There were lots of gainers, but nothing spectacular except for the large-cap stocks. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up nearly 10 today at 9.98 to 325.30. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) rose 6.51 to 194.23, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) advanced 1.20 to 166.22.

Among other point-plus gainers, MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) jumped 2.45 to 29.55, IDT Corporation (IDT) 1.43 to 26.26, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) 1.03 to 32.05, Calix Inc. (CALX) 1.31 to 20.71, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) 1.09 to 26.82, Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) 1.22 to 35.90, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) 1.50 to 30.25, Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF) 1.04 to 8.66, and Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) 1.52 to 27.53. Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (SNCR) added 1.50 to 30.15.

In addition, low-priced stocks had a big day today, with Unilife Corporation (UNIS) up 50 cents to 4.74, Wave Systems Corp. (WAVX) 52 cents to 2.98, and Orsus Xelent Technologies Inc. (ORS) 54 cents to 4.59.

On the downside, there were just a couple fractional losers.

The ultra-short ETFs had a bad day. The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) got hammered for 1.83 to 47.37, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 2.62 to 37.71.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, consolidated midday, ran again in the early afternoon, pulled back, and then snapped back into the close.

It was a very strong bullish day taking out some minor levels of resistance, but the S&P 500 has resistance up near the 1297-98 range and found it difficult to get through that before the close.

We’ll see if there’s a follow-through tomorrow.

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