The stock market indices had another nice day today, and the technicals were great. The trend was up solidly all day, especially on the S&P 500, which after an early little dip to test support, took off and rocketed right to the 1302-3 zone at resistance. It backed off in an orderly fashion, and then came on again to secondary resistance up around 1306, but eventually broke that and reached as high as 1308 today.

Net on the day, the Dow closed near the high, up 96.88 at 12,578.95. The S&P 500 was up 14.37 to 1308.04, and the Nasdaq 100 up 32.72 at 2425.96 at the high for the day.

Advance-declines were nearly 4 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 3 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 6 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of just under 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.9 billion shares and had a 4 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

It was a big day today on Wall Street.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly positive. Leading the way were many of the large-cap stocks. Goldman Sachs (GS) led the financials, and led the market in general today, up 6.63 to 104.31. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 4.41 to 429.11, reaching 429.47, an all-time high today. First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) gained 3.00 to 43.00, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 3.82 to 98.54, Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) 2.13 to 30.83, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.03 to 40.10, Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) 1.03 to 10.64, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.07 to 181.07.

Other stocks of note included Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (UEPS), up 2.20 to 8.92, or 32.7%; and Columbia Laboratories, Inc. (CBRX) up 38 cents to 1.47, or 34%. American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) up 1.20 to 5.55, or 28%; PHH Corp Common Stock (PHH) up 1.42. 12.08, Smith Micro Software, Inc. (SMSI) 27 cents to 2.00, or 16%; and Hercules Offshore, Inc. (HERO) 49 cents to 4.40, or 12 1/2%.

Semi-conductors were stellar today. Linear Technology Corporation (LLTC) was up 3.45 to 33.32, NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) 1.79 to 18.98, Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (VSH) 1.13 to 11.43, PMC (PMCS) 59 cents to 6.41, International Rectifier Corpora (IRF) 2.07 to 22.93, and Applied Micro Circuits Corporate (AMCC) 67 cents to 7.96. They were among some of the strong gainers percentage-wise in that group today.

In addition, OraSure Technologies Inc. (OSUR) jumped 96 cents to 10.84, or nearly 10% on over 1.1 million shares today. United Rentals, Inc. (URI), one of our swing trades, which is looking and acting great, was up 2.93 to 34.77, or 9%, on 6.5 million shares. Junior biotech Amarin Corporation plc (AMRN) was up 71 cents to 8.39, or 9%, on 5 million shares, and OSI Systems, Inc. (OSIS) 3.67 to 54.17, a new all-time high today.

On the downside, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) dropped 2.08 to 39.70. That was the only point-plus loser on our board today with the exception of the ultrashort ETFs. In that group, the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was down 1.68 to 22.76, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 1.38 to 30.89, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 1.29 to 22.56.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, consolidated late morning, came on again in the afternoon, and stair-stepped their way higher for a very nice follow-through session.

We’re now at new multi-week highs here on the indices.

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