The stock market indices certainly ended up on a very strong note, although the morning was quite different. They gapped up and ran to just under the 2400 range on the Nasdaq 100, and above 1270 on the S&P 500. A sharp pullback broke a couple layers of minor support, but held key support at 1255 on the SPX and near the 2360-61 range on the NDX. They then bounced, retested, and when that was successful, they took off in the afternoon, once again taking the NDX from 2370 to over 2400. The S&P 500 jumped from about 1259 up to 1278, and then backed off.

Nevertheless, it was a very strong day on Wall Street. Net on the day, the Dow was up 101.79 at 12,170.18, the S&P 500 up 14.80 at 1275.92, and the Nasdaq 100 up 28.97 at 2400.01.

Advance-declines were 3 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 2 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 1/2 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of about 865 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.83 billion shares and had a 14 to 4 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was strong, and there were quite a few winners today. Some of the stocks leading the way were Rackspace Hosting, Inc (RAX) up 3.13 to 44.88, Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJET) up 1.65 to 4.34, or 61%, and DealerTrack Holdings, Inc. (TRAK) 3.15 to 25.87. Solazyme, Inc. (SZYM) closed up 1.45 to 10.82.

Other stocks of note included low-priced KV Pharmaceutical Co. (KV-A) up 82 cents to 1.71, or 91%, and Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. (SBSA) up 1.51 to 2.99, or 102.3%. Torch Energy Royalty Trust (TRU) added 82 cents to 4.97, or 20%, and Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (OPXA) 34 cents to 1.37, or 33%.

In addition, Dynegy Inc. (DYN) was up 81 cents to 3.76, EnerNOC, Inc. (ENOC) up 2.21 to 12.01, Fuel-Tech, Inc. (FTEK) 1.27 to 6.70, Procera Networks, Inc. (PKT) 2.37 to 14.20, Iridium Communications Inc. (IRDM) 1.00 to 7.33, and Radian Group Inc. (RDN) 43 cents to 3.40. YPF S.A. (YPF) gained 4.23 to 35.95, Hologic Inc. (HOLX) up 1.61 to 17.84, and BroadSoft, Inc. (BSFT) 3.65 to 39.94.

In the large-cap sector Apple Inc. (AAPL) advanced 6.50 to 406.23, Goldman Sachs (GS) 3.01 to 108.58, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 2.08 to 49.44, and Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 1.17 to 29.79.

On the downside, the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) ultra-short got hammered for 4.71 to 46.04, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) lost 2.15 to 37.75, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) was down 2.00 to 40.82, with the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) dropping 1.29 to 28.22.

Also on the downside was SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) down 1.24 to 34.11. Other than that there we no other point-plus losers. However, earnings will be coming out.

Stepping back and reviewing the 5-minute chart patterns, the indices jumped big at the opening, ran a bit, pulled back sharply, held support, bounced, retested, and then ran in the afternoon to close not far off the session highs. Only a pullback in the last 5 minutes prevented them from closing exactly at the highs.

It was a very, very strong follow-through day to yesterday’s rally. We’ll see if we can take out the highs. Right now we’re approaching highs on the S&P 500 and the NDX, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

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