The stock market indices had an up day today, but gave back a chunk of their gains in the last few minutes. It was back and forth in the morning, they dipped sharply just before the lunch hour to new lows on the S&P 500, but the Nasdaq 100 held. At that point, they rallied very sharply, taking the NDX up 40 points from 2333 to 2375. The S&P 500 jumped from 1244 to 1264. In the last half hour they rolled over and gave back a chunk of the gains. They still ended up positive, but left a bit of a sour note at the close in terms of what could have been.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 17.18 at 12,096.16, about 95 points off the low and 70 points off the high. The S&P 500 was up 6.02 to 1257.80, 7 points off the high and 13 points off the low. The Nasdaq 100 was up 24.92 at 2366.24, 9 points off the high, but a whopping 31 points off the low.

The market had a positive close, but could have been better.

Advance-declines were 19 to 11 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was just a little less than 2 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of 750 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded 1.66 billion shares, and had an almost 3 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com was mostly higher today. Leading the way, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 9.57 to 388.83, among the blue chips that we follow.

Among the leading low-priced leaders of note, Netlist Inc. (NLST) was up 50 cents to 2.85, or 21%; Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX) up 32 cents to 1.33, or 31%; ChinaCast Education Corporation (CAST) 1.16 to 5.04, or 30%; VanceInfo Technologies Inc. (VIT) 1.49 to 10.36, or 17%; ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (ATPG) 88 cents to 6.66, or 15%; Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) 1.77 to 13.50, or 15%; and Gentiva Health Services Inc. (GTIV) 79 cents to 5.97, or 15%.

Woodward, Inc. (WWD) gained 5.02 to 40.77, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) 5.47 to 47.61, Fusion-io Inc. (FIO) 3.20 to 38.10, Focus Media Holding Ltd. (FMCN) 2.56 to 26.38, CVD Equipment Corp. (CVV) 1.80 to 17.55, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (JEC) 3.03 to 41.17, Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT), one of our swing trades, up 2.47 to 31.22, and McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR) 1.22 to 15.25 in a generally strong oil patch.

Also, Varian Medical Systems Inc. (VAR) was up 3.55 to 60.60, Vulcan Materials Company (VMC) up 1.67 to 32.23, Colfax Corporation (CFX) 2.68 to 30.01, Sourcefire, Inc. (FIRE) 1.73 to 33.91, and VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) 1.13 to 22.61.

In addition, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) was up 2.54 to 53.31, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.37 to 33.78, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) 1.22 to 29.70, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.01 to 44.36, and InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) 2.07 to 48.11.

On the downside, there were only fractional losses. The VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was down 1.08 to 51.98, and Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) down 1.18 to 29.11 in the ultra-short sector.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices basically backed and filled most of the morning, made new session lows around midday, and exploded in the afternoon to close with positive gains, although in the last half hour pullback took back a big chunk of the gains and ended far short of the highs.

Let’s see if there’s a follow-through tomorrow or not.

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