The stock market indices had a very strong rally after a very weak opening today. They snapped back with a vengeance, particularly after Greece agreed to a five-year austerity plan in Europe, which gave a lot of confidence to traders. The indices rallied sharply from steep morning losses.

The day started out with a big gap down. The Nasdaq 100 gapped from the 2235 area and reached as low as 2205, more than 30 points lower early on. They then double-bottomed around 2205, ran up sharply into midday, backed off, did about a 30.382 Fibonacci retracement, held support, and then exploded after the news regarding the Greeks, reaching as high as 2256. That’s a take-out of the recent rally highs. Although the S&P 500 rallied likewise, it didn’t quite rise as strongly and didn’t get anywhere near its earlier highs. Possibly a negative divergence -- we’ll see.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 59.67 at 12,050.00, which was 175 points off its low. The S&P 500 fell 3.64 to 1283.50, 21 points off its low, but Nasdaq 100 was up 19.39 at 2255.05, 51 points off its low.

So, the indices had a big reversal today.

Advance-declines still remain negative by nearly 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, but positive by 200 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 negative on New York with total volume of a 1.1 billion shares. Nasdaq traded 1.96 billion and had a 2 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher at the close with quite a few winners, but not as many point-plus gainers today. Many of these stocks were up early in the session, came back down to earth before rallying and snapping back. So quite a volatile day.

Some of the ultra-short ETFs did well. The ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) jumped 2.67 to 52.35, with the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) up 1.13 to 18.50, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) snapping back 1.39 to 49.59.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) jumped 8.62 to 331.23, about 13 points off its low. A very big reversal for Apple. That was one of the highlights on Nasdaq today, and one of the reasons why the NDX had such a strong snapback rally.

Other stocks of note included ServiceSource International (SREV), up 1.14 to 20.03. Orsus Xelent Technologies Inc. (ORS) rose 87 cents to 5.08, up 21%, Sky-mobi Limited (MOBI) 88 cents to 7.68, up 13%, China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources, Inc. (SHZ) 22 cents to 3.55, L & L Energy, Inc. (LLEN) 94 cents to 5.70, up nearly 20%, and Herman Miller Inc. (MLHR), which we traded today, up 2.75 to 26.75.

Genesco Inc. (GCO), also a pick of ours, gained 5.48 to 50.62, with Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) up 1.17 to 8.91, Raptor Pharmaceuticals Corp. (RPTP) 54 cents to 6.33, up 9%, Oncothyreon Inc (ONTY) 42 cents to 8.57, and Riverbed Technology, Inc. (RVBD) 2.27 to 35.53.

In addition, airlines were positive, with US Airways Group, Inc. (LCC) up 43 cents to 8.91, among several others.

On the downside there were no point-plus losers. LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) was down 92 cents to 42.84. Ultra-short ETF Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 47 cents to 38.13.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened sharply lower, bounced around and tested the lows, and then started to rally, sharply so on the NDX, which ran from 2205 to 2240. The S&P 500 rallied from 1263 to 1276. They backed off in mid-afternoon, but came on again, rallying up to 2256 on the NDX and to over 1284 on the S&P 500, closing just fractions beneath both of those levels.

It was a very strong snapback rally, which closed back above the moving averages on the hourly charts as well. If there’s any follow-through to the upside, this could have been an important retest of the lows, and perhaps an important bottom in this area.

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