The stock market indices roared from the start as the week opened with a bang. The market reached session highs mid-afternoon, and then backed off, but snapped back in the last few minutes to close with nice gains on the day, especially on Nasdaq.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 104.83 at 11,913.62, the S&P 500 up 15.94 at 1254.19, and the Nasdaq 100 up 48.39 at 2384.42. The SPX closed a couple points off the high for the day, with the Dow about 27 points off the high and the NDX about 5 points off the high.

So, it was a pretty good day on Wall Street today.

Advance-declines were 5 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 12 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 8 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of 920 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded 1.85 billion shares and had a 21 to 5 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, consisted mostly of gainers today. Leading the way, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up a staggering 12.90 to 405.77. First Solar, Inc. (FSLR), in a strong solar group, was up 4.18 to 57.95. Universal Display Corp. (PANL) gained 3.30 to 51.63, and Youku.com Inc (YOKU), which we traded today, advanced 2.24 to 22.53.

In addition, VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) rose 2.21 to 17.81, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) 4.38 to 91.77 on strong earnings, Rio Tinto plc (RIO) 4.08 to 54.52, low-priced Sky-mobi Limited (MOBI) 1.40 to 5.32, and InterMune Inc. (ITMN) 2.87 to 25.13.

The big percentage gainer today, Exelixis, Inc. (EXEL), was up 1.45 to 7.44, or 24%.

Others percentage gainers of note included Quepasa Corp. (QPSA) up 69 cents to 3.65, or 23%. Media General, Inc. (MEG) soared 60 cents to 2.29, or 35 1/2%, and SemGroup Corporation (SEMG) 4.71 to 28.27, or 20%, on a takeover bid. Fusion-io Inc. (FIO) was up 3.86 to 30.32, or 15%; WebMD Health Corp. (WBMD) 3.71 to 36.10, or 11 1/2%; NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) 2.02 to 18.00, or 13%; and CROCS Inc. (CROX) 1.76 to 17.01, or 11 1/2%.

In addition, Focus Media Holding Ltd. (FMCN) was up 25.79, NetSuite Inc. (N) 2.57 to 37.59, and Alpha Natural Resources, Inc., (ANR), a swing trade or ours, up 2.06 to 23.79. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) gained 1.80 to 118.84, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 2.83 to 237.61, and Google Inc. (GOOG) 5.93 to 596.42.

On the downside, Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) was down 42 cents to 11.19, and Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) lost 67 cents to 11.23. They were among just a few losers on our board today.

Also, the ultra-shorts got hammered, with the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) down 7.01 to 49.64, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) 3.47 to 32.34, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 3.01 to 42.24, the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 2.66 to 20.29, the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 1.49 to 32.59, and iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 2.62 to 41.17.

ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil (SCO) fell 4.33 to 47.27, ProShares UltraShort Gold (GLL) dropped 36 cents to 18.27, and ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) shed 35 cents to 13.89.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were strong all morning and into mid-afternoon until they finally pulled back in a 3-wave decline, but snapped back in the last 5 or 10 minutes, and closed very positive on the session.

Let’s see if we can continue this kind of action tomorrow.

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