The stock market indices had a very, very strong session capped by a wonderful, last-minute snapback that brought the indices way back from an afternoon sell-off.

It was a great day on Wall Street today.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 291.08 at 11,522.86, the S&P 500 up 33.89 to 1292.56, and the Nasdaq 100 up 73.34 at 2224.22, or 3 1/2% today.

Advance-declines were more than 5 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2600 issues up and less than 500 down. Nasdaq was 5 to 1 positive as well with 2116 to 440. Up/down volume was 917 million up and just 22 million down on New York. Nasdaq had nearly 1.5 billion up and only 128 million down.

As you can see, the ratios were extremely strong today.

TheTechTrader.com, as a result, had a lot of gainers. Leading the way was Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 12.55 to 376.12, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) up 11.74 to 194.15, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) 4.24 to 44.56, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 5.15 to 182.21, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 3.67 to 30.65, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 6.09 to 69.95.

Other point-plus gainers included SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) up 2.79 to 31.32, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) 1.33 to 50.99, Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) up 1.70 to 27.65, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.97 to 43.35, InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) 1.83 to 42.53, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.03 to 90.78, Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (SIMO) 1.30 to 18.66, and Youku.com Inc (YOKU) 1.14 to 16.86, and Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MNTA) 1.87 to 16.55.

Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) jumped 5.12 to 42.80, or 13 1/2%, on takeover rumors.

Gainers in the low-priced sector included Dex One Corporation (DEXO) up 25 cents to 1.03, or 33%; Mines Management Inc. (MGN) 40 cents to 2.21, or 22%; Neoprobe Corp. (NEOP) 36 cents to 2.41, or 17 1/2%; Merge Healthcare Incorporated. (MRGE) 77 cents to 5.18, or 17 1/2%; Smart Balance, Inc (SMBL) 63 cents to 5.44, or 13%; Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (OWW) 35 cents to 3.19, or 12%, and (GTIV) 58 cents to 5.75, or 11%.

In addition, Flotek Industries Inc. (FTK) was up 72 cents to 8.80, Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (HALO) up 65 cents to 8.75, Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) 61 cents to 7.15, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) 31 cents to 5.30, Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. (GNK) 59 cents to 7.52, Akorn, Inc. (AKRX) 77 cents to 10.07, Astronics Corporation (ATRO) 2.48 to 33.78, and Procera Networks, Inc. (PKT) 1.08 to 15.52.

Junior oils were strong today. Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. (MHR) was up 53 cents to 4.31, McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR) up 1.18 to 14.74, and Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) 1.66 to 22.20.

The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) was up 4.72 to 38.39, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) jumped 4.21 to 53.59.

On the downside, Amarin Corporation plc (AMRN) was down 22 cents to 6.88, Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) down 32 cents to 9.89, and Royale Energy Inc. (ROYL) 56 cents to 4.08. Those were among the few losers on our board today.

The ultra-short ETFs, of course, had a bad day. The VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was down 6.38 to 57.60, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 4.71 to 49.39, the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 3.49 to 22.04, the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 3.47 to 35.68, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 2.38 to 46.82.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply, especially in the last 5 or 10 minutes when they exploded from an afternoon sell off that pulled them back to near the opening prices. However, net on the day, big gains across the board. Today’s highs represent key overhead resistance near 1197 to 1200 zone on the S&P 500, and up near the 2227-8 zone on the NDX.

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

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