The stock market indices had a mixed day, with the Dow up, S&P 500 barely ahead, and the Nasdaq 100 down. The technicals were positive and, in general, a big day. Despite very large drops from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG), the Nasdaq 100 held together, because of Intel Corporation (INTC) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT). Let’s go over the details.

The day started out with a gap down at the opening, especially on the Nasdaq 100, because of Google being down 50 points. The indices then bounced, pulled back again, bounced sharply to partially fill the gap, and then backed off to make a lower-low on the S&P 500, but the NDX held. At that point, they had a nice, steady midday rally. They pulled back sharply, and looked like they were going to roll over, but they held support once again, and then rallied into the close with the S&P 500 closing at the high for the day going away at nearly the high for the year.

It was a terrific day for the S&P 500 and Dow, as the blue chips did well today.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 96.50 at 12,720.48, closing over 12,700 for the first time in a long time. The S&P 500 was up .88 to 1315.38, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 4.68 at 2437.02. That was just a point off the high for the day, and 9 points off the low.

Advance-declines were a little less than 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 4 positive on New York, with total volume of 900 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion shares and had a 11 to 8 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, had a strangely mixed day, with Google down 53.57 at 595.99. Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 7.45 to 420.30, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 3.22 to 100.24, but International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) was up 8.00 to 188.52, Goldman Sachs (GS) up 1.06 to 108.74, and Intel Corporation (INTC) up 75 cents to 26.38, a new 52-week high, on over 1.1 million shares traded. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) traded heavily today, up 1.59 to 29.71, or 5.65%, just 3 cents off the high at multi-year highs today, on 165 million shares.

So, it was a very mixed picture within the large-cap stocks, as the New York Stock Exchange and S&P 500 issues did better than those on the Nasdaq 100.

Other stocks of note included low-priced biotech Insmed Incorporated (INSM), up 1.21 to 5.01, or 32%, on 3.6 million shares. CPI Corporation (CPY) rose 45 cents to 1.81, or 33%, and BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) exploded to over 30 at one point earlier in the day, closing up 2.83 to 27.00, or 12%. AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (ASIA) gained 1.86 to 11.78, or 19%, and Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) was up over 51 today, closing up 5.65 to 49.00, or 13%.

Inphi Corporation (IPHI) gained 1.19 to 13.48, American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) 39 cents to 5.64, NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) 1.32 to 20.56, Nanometrics Incorporated (NANO) 1.07 to 18.86, and ZOLL Medical Corp. (ZOLL) 3.24 to 67.64.

On the downside, Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACHN) was down 1.15 to 9.47 as profit-taking set in there, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) lost 1.25 to 38.21. Those were among the point-plus losers today.

The ultra-shorts continue to get hurt, as the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) fell 1.30 to 20.20, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) dropped 1.30 to 11.46.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down at the opening, bounced sharply in the morning, retested, and then retested again in the afternoon, but started to break out, and rolled back to test the lows. They did come on at the close, especially on the S&P 500 to new session highs, although the NDX did not make it back up to the session high. It was generally a strong, positive close to finish out the week.

This was certainly an interesting week. Let‘s see how next week goes.

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