The stock market indices managed to forge ahead again today, although late profit-taking in the last 15-20 minutes really took back a decent chunk of the gains. However, an early morning dip, a sharp one at that, held support. They then rallied them very sharply, with taking the Nasdaq 100 from 2202 up to 2240. The S&P 500 jumped from 1196 to the 1214-15 area. They pulled back midday, tested support again and held, and then came on again, running the NDX from 2221 up to 2250, and the S&P 500 ran from 1204 to 1220. However, in the last 15-20 minutes they backed off, giving back 13 points on the NDX and 7 on the S&P 500, and closed up on the day.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 20.70 at 11,559.95, about 90 points off the its high. The S&P 500 was up 2.84 at 1212.92, about 7 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 was up 13.73 at 2237.69, about 13 points off its high.

Advance-declines were 19 to 11, or nearly 2 to 1, positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and only 13 to 12 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 3 to 2 positive on New York, with a total volume right at 1 billion shares traded. Nasdaq traded 1.8 billion shares and had about a 10 to 8 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. Leading the way today was Molycorp, Inc. (MCP), up 3.79 to 57.62. Other stocks in the rare-earth group that did well today were Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) up 59 cents to 9.10, Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AVL) up 23 cents to 4.55, and Quest Rare Minerals Ltd Common (QRM) 38 cents to 4.90.

Coffee stocks also did well. Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (CBOU) was up 1.21 to 15.50, and Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) 1.89 to 21.28, although they did have a late sell-off that brought them off the highs for the day.

In addition, Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. Cla (ARCO) was up 1.18 to 26.96, and CoreLogic, Inc. (CLGX) up 2.56 to 11.35, or 29%, on news of a potential sale. Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) rose 1.30 to 33.09, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.33 to 30.00 even, ServiceSource International (SREV) 1.34 to 17.91, and Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 1.08 to 38.01.

Among other gainers of note, Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (SVA), part of a higher vaccination group, was up 57 cents to 2.93, or 24%, Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) 28 cents to 1.96, or 16.7%, and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BCRX) 26 cents to 3.37, or 8%.

Low-priced GMX Resources Inc. (GMXR) was up 35 cents to 2.99, or 13%, Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. (GNK) 73 cents to 6.94, or 12%, and Genetic Technologies Ltd. (GENE) 59 cents to 6.29, or 10%.

On the downside, there were no stocks on our board down as much as a point today. VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) lost 64 cents to 23.19, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) was weak, down 40 cents to 36.56, and Universal Display Corp. (PANL), which went as high as 58 pre-market, closed at 50.90, down 32 cents. A big reversal there.

The ultra-short ETFs were very mixed today. VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was actually up 1.17 to 49.66, closing 3 points off its high.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down early, rallied sharply in the morning, pulled back midday, and came on again in the afternoon only to pull back once again at the end of the day, but closed on the upside for the day.

We’ll have to see if there will be some follow-through, but there is some strong overhead resistance in this zone.

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