It was an extremely strong up-day today as the indices opened with a huge gap. They retested in very bullish consolidation patterns for half the day and then in the afternoon broke out and started climbing steadily. Late in the session they had a very sharp pullback, but in the last 10 mintues snapped back hard and closed near the highs for the day.

The Dow was up 205, the S&P 500 up 24.34, and the Nasdq 100 up more than 42. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up just 1.64.

Advance-declines were nearly 3 to 1 positive on New York and 2 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 6 1/2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of more than 2 1/4 billion. More than 2 1/2 billion was traded on the Nasdaq, with about a 4 to 1 positive ratio on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. Alternative energy stocks led the way . Solarfun (SOLF), up 3.33. Canadian Solar (CSIQ up 1.61. Ascent Solar (ASTI) up 93 cents, and Hoku Scientific (HOKU), which we added to our portfolio today, was up 49 cents. VSE gained 2.04, and FuelCell Energy (FCEL) 55 cents.

Other stocks of note, Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) was up 1.82. DG FastChannel (DGIT) was up 1.04 to 25.03. Eschelon Corp. (ELON) was up 1.22 to 19.01, and Global Solutions (GSOL) gained 1.15 at 29.85.

On the downside, there were only fractional losses for the most part except for Sigma Designs (SIGM) which had a quite negative day, down 2.86.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a significant day in that they gapped up through important short-term resistance, and after very bullish morning flag-type consolidations, broke out in the afternoon and closed with a bang at the highs for the week going away. A very strong year-end rally is apparently underway.

PLEASE NOTE: This is our last Closing Boxer Brief until Wednesday January 2, 2008. Happy Holidays & New Year everyone!

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.