The stock market indices had their third consecutive strong session in a row to make it a perfect week so far. The day started out with backing and filling action, a bit of a dip that held support, and then they took off in a sharp run that took them from 2279 to 2300 on the Nasdaq 100 and from the 1297-98 area to the 1309 area on the S&P 500.

They backed and filled for a couple hours, consolidated, and had a difficult time getting through resistance at 2300 on the NDX and at the 1309-10 zone on the S&P 500. They then backed off sharply mid-afternoon, but reversed and rallied in the last hour to retest the session earlier highs and close not far off their highs.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 72.73 at 12,261.42, the S&P 500 up 10.74 at 1301.41, just a couple points off its high, and Nasdaq 100 up 8.68 at 2294.43, 5 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 21 to 9 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and just 13 to 12 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 4 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of just over 900 million shares. Nasdaq traded just nearly 1.8 billion and had 2 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was active. The percentage gainer of the day was Alanco Technologies Inc. (ALAN), which gapped up and ran to 2.95 at one point, up 175%, but then rolled over and closed at 2.17, still up 1.15, or 115% on the session.

Large-cap stocks generally had a good session today other than Apple. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was up 1.83 to 204.18, and Goldman Sachs (GS) 3.27 to 132.53, but Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 1.22 to 334.04.

Other gainers of note included Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) up 1.51 to 35.03, LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) 1.49 to 45.00, ServiceSource International, In (SREV) 79 cents to 21.73, and Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTI) 92 cents to 4.96, up 23%.

Other percentage gainers included some of the recently beaten down Chinese stocks. Renren Inc. American Depositary (RENN) gained 97 cents to 8.57, up 13%, on 16 million shares traded. Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. A (QIHU) rose 1.57 to 19.69, up 8.6%, and E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (DANG) 80 cents to 12.09, up 7%.

In addition, Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) snapped back sharply , closing at 13.76, up 1.27, or 10% today. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) was up 1.64 to 25.20, and Genetic Technologies Ltd. (GENE) up 40 cents to 6.23.

Sequans Communications S.A. Ame (SQNS) jumped 34 cents to 14.13, Cobalt International Energy, Inc. (CIE) 52 cents to 13.64, Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARIA) 61 cents to 11.86, Global Crossing Ltd. (GLBC) 78 cents to 37.77, setting a new multi-year high, and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 84 cents to 57.02.

On the downside, multiple point-plus losers included Youku.com Inc (YOKU), which gave back 1.74 to 33.80, and Boxer Short Cree Inc. (CREE), down 1.56 to 32.54.

Ultra-short ETFs got hammered today, with the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 3.49 to 45.04, ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) 2.19 to 48.78, ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) 1.19 to 18.82, and iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 1.16 to 22.03.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply early, backed and filled midday, rolled over hard in the afternoon for a critical retest and held, and the bulls brought them back into the close. The S&P 500 closed not far off the session high and the rally highs, but just under key overhead resistance around the 1310 level.

We’ll see if we can get any additional follow-through tomorrow.

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