It was a huge up-day for the indices today, and they were even up in the morning before the FOMC announced, but a couple hours prior to the announcement the indices pulled back in orderly fashion, held support, and when the FOMC announced they were cutting interest rates by half a point, the markets exploded and ran hard. Only a couple brief pullbacks interrupted the rally, but they closed at or near the highs for the day going away.

The Dow was up 336 points, the S&P 500 43, the Nasdaq 100 52 1/4, and even the OEX was up 19, a big gain there. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) gained nearly 14.

The technicals were huge to the upside today with more than 3000 advancers and only 350 decliners on New York, about an 8 1/2 to 1 positive ratio. But if you think that was good, up/down volume was 1.6 billion to the upside and 53 million to the downside, about a 32 to 1 ratio on up-volume over down-volume. Nasdaq was a bit more tame, positive by 4 to 1 on advance-declines. It had 1.9 billion shares trading to the upside and 180 million to the downside, about a 11 to 1 ratio of up volume over down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was vastly higher, with quite a few large multiple point gainers today. Leading the way: DryShips (DRYS) up 4.44, Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) up 4.28, Sigma Designs (SIGM) soaring 3.28 to another new all-time, SunPower (SPWR) up 3.92, and Excel Maritime (EXM) up 2.51.

Low-priced Ascent Solar (ASTI) exploded today, hitting a new all-time high, up 3.26 for a gain of 35% in one day. That was our Chart of the Day.

Other major gainers of note: Eschelon Corp. (ELON) was up 2.15, VASCO Data Security (VDSI) up 2.03, LDK in the strong solar group, up 1.94, JA Solar (JASO) 1.95, Global Solutions (GSOL) 2.06, and Chindex (CHDX) 1.80.

FuelTek (FTEK) gained 1.63 and DG FastChannel (DGIT) 1.23. and China Medical Technologies (CMED) was also up 1.27 in the strong China group.

Among our portfolio positions, Cepheid (CPHD) advanced 84 cents, Harmonic Inc. (HLIT) up 44 cents, VII up 31 cents, and Telular Corp. (WRLS) 33 cents.

There were no point-plus losers today, with just small fractional losses on several stocks, but for the most part it was a 90% gainer today on Wall Street, particularly on the NYSE.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, not much to say except that the head-and-shoulders bottom pattern that had developed on the S&P 500 was broken to the upside as the neckline was taken out after the FOMC announcement, and the indices surged, with the S&P 500 jumping from 1484 to 1520 inside of an hour. The NDX jumped from 1989 to 2035, a gain of about 45 points in an hour and a half.

So it was an extremely strong surge to the upside, breaking out the SPX.

At the very end of the day the NDX also took out the September 4 high to confirm the rally. I would not be surprised to see extending upside, but usually a day or two after the Fed announces, we get an reaction in the opposite direction, so I would caution investors to be careful and not to chase.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com, a real-time diary of his day, swing and intermediate-term trades. For more of Harry Boxer, sign up for a free 15-day trial to his Real-Time Technical Trading Diary, or sign up for a free 30-day trial to his Top Charts of the Week service.