Quadruple witching Friday turned out to be a positive day for stocks, as indices were firm although off their highs.

The day started out with a gap-up. They consolidated for about an hour in the morning and then ran to the session highs around lunch hour. That was very similar to yesterday morning's action. We then had a pullback in the afternoon that was fairly moderate on the Nasdaq 100, but a little deeper on the SS&P 500. But support did hold. The indices bounced with about an hour and a half to go, but pulled back in the last 45 minutes or so.

Net on the day the Dow was up 53 1/2 and closed at 13,820. The S&P 500 at 1525.75 was up 7, and the Nasdaq 100 at nearly 20.0, wa up almost 17. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 2 points today and closed at 501 and change.

The technicals were positive by 5 to 3 on advance-declines on New York but just by 16 to 13 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 positive on New York and about the same on Nasdaq. Total volume was heavy today, with more than 2 billion traded on New York and about 2 1/3 on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher today. Solar energy and shipping were particularly strong. JA Solar (JASO) gained 3.99, LDK 3.38, Ascent Solar (ASTI) 2.64, and SPWR 1.45.

In the shipping stocks, DryShips (DRYS) exploded to a new all-time high, closing at 81.65, up 5.68, as did Excel Maritime(EXM), at 50.67, up 4.43.

Other stocks of note, Global Solutions (GSOL) advanced 1.69, VMware (VMW) another 2.66, and portfolio positions Cepheid (CPHD) up 48 cents.

On the downside, point-plus losers included Sigma Designs (SIGM), which gave back 1.15, and e-Future Information Technology (EFUT), down 1.06. Cree Inc. (CREE) dropped back 2.17 today on heavy profit-taking. We exited that from our model portfolio yesterday at 34.35, and it closed at 32.50.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after two days of bullish-type consolidation the indices spurted higher today but failed to follow through in the afternoon and pretty much consolidated for the rest of the day.

We may see a further pullback and retest, but the overall patterns are still positive and bullish and could easily work their way higher.

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.