The stock market had another excellent session, with the indices showing more gains, especially in the morning part of the session. The day started out with a gap up, after which they backed off and retested support, and held. When that occurred, they rallied sharply, with the Nasdaq 100 going from 2436 to 2445. The S&P 500 jumped from 1308 up to 1315, and then they paused to consolidate, with the NDX having a downward descent. The S&P 500 had a kind of sideways trading range of 3 points for the last several hours, and held in that range by the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 43.05, just a couple points from the high at 12,623.98, with the S&P 500 up 6.46 to 1314.50, only 1 point off the high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 15.74 at 2441.70, 4 points off its high.

Advance-declines were nearly 2 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume also nearly 2 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of about 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion shares and had a 12 to 7 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly mixed but there were some very impressive gainers today. Low-priced 8x8 Inc. (EGHT) jumped 85 cents to 4.26, or 25%. Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (ASTI) gained 21 cents to 1.06, or 25%, and Hansen Medical, Inc. (HNSN) 37 cents to 2.79, or 15%, while Gulf Resources, Inc. (GURE) rose 28 cents to 2.49, or 13%, and Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (UEPS) 1.01 to 9.93, or 11%.

NetScout Systems Inc. (NTCT), which we traded today, was up 2.87 to 19.92, and F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV) advanced 11.54 to 120.00 even, about 2 points off its high. Plexus Corp. (PLXS) jumped 3.25 to 36.50, Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (CTRP) 2.21 to 26.90, Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) 3.86 to 43.35, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 2.40 to 30.50, and Aruba Networks, Inc. (ARUN) 1.61 to 21.79.

Among other gainers of note, BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) was up 2.66 to 24.17, SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI) 2.32 to 31.11, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) 2.37 to 42.02, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 4.92 to 103.46. Goldman Sachs (GS) gained 3.37 to 107.68.

In addition, AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (ASIA), which we traded today, was up 1.32 to 9.92, or 15%.

Other major players included Apple Inc. (AAPL), which reached an all-time new high today at 431.37, but closed at a loss for the day, down 1.36 to 427.75. First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) got hammered on negative news out of Germany, down 4.28 to 38.70, and traded as high as 44.16 today, It was a big reversal day for some stocks.

Also on the downside, VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) lost 1.26 to 21.50.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, and backed off to test, ran hard to the session highs by midday, and then consolidated the rest of the day.

It was not a bad day at all for the indices as the rally rolls on.

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