The market had a springboard rally that exploded out of the gate with strong pre-market futures. The indices gapped up, consolidated within the first half hour, and then ran sharply higher in the morning. It spent the next few hours backing and filling and testing lower levels successfully, and then in the last hour came on strongly with a rush, closing near the highs for the day on all the indices.

The Dow did back off a little toward the close, but was up 196 on the day. The S&P 500 was up 22.21, the Nasdaq 100 up 40 1/4, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 2 1/2 percent, or more than 10 points today.

The technicals were very strong, with advance-declines on New York 3 to 1 positive and Nasdaq about 2 to 1 positive. Up/down volume was 4 to 1 positive on New York with total volume there of 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2.2 billion, and had a better than 2 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was all over the place today with many multiple-point gainers and losers. The star today by far was China Natural Resources (CHNR), which we spotted early in the morning around 18 level, and it closed at 31.50, up 14.77 today, a monster rally there.

So it was a strong day, in particular, for Chinese stocks. China Finance Online (JRJC), one of our recent Charts of the Day, jumped 2.62 on 2 1/4 million. Chinese online company Global Solutions (GSOL) was up 2.03. Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) was up 2.15. Chinese hotelier Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) was up 1.81.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) in another monster session closed at 71.15, up 4.23, to a new all-time high. Cepheid (CPHD) jumped 2.29. Chinese hotelier Home Inns & Hotels (HMIN) was up 1.81.

Junior solars, which had a great follow-up move earlier in the morning, hitting new multi-session rally highs, reversed in the afternoon and came down hard. Ascent Solar (ASTI), for example, hit nearly 22, but closed at 18.83, down 1.87, a big reversal there.

Solarfun (SOLF), which we had featured recently at around 15, exploded early in the morning and ran up to as high as 31.80, but reversed sharply by $8 and closed down 2.30 on the day.

In the shipping sector, another strong early morning move was also followed by a strong reversal. DryShips (DRYS) got up to 89 1/4, and closed at 84.30, down 47 cents, giving back all of its early gains. Similarly, Excel Maritime (EXM) got up to nearly 51 and closed at 48.20, still up 90 cents on the day, and about 1 1/2 points off the late afternoon lows. So it did snapback late in the session.

TBS International (TBSI) got as high as 47.47, closing at 41.67, reversing 6 points, down 2.55 on the day.

VMware (VMW) reversed 10 off its early high, but closed at 90.44, down 4.64.

Other stocks of note: Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) jumped 1.38, DIVX lost 1.10, Blue Phoenix (BPHX) had a big negative reversal, dropping more than 3 points from intraday high to low, down 1.69 on the day.

As a result of the strong market session, the SDS lost 1.91, the QID 1.41, the DUG oil and gas ETF down 1.54. So, quite a few big movers today on our board.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, a very strong breakaway gap took out the 3-day downtrend, broke up through moving average and price resistance, and then consolidated mid-afternoon before bouncing back at the close. This augurs very well for future price progress, and it certainly appears that the year-end rally is on.

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.