The markets had a positive session on Thursday, and we got pretty much what I had expected and had indicated in my early comments. Right near the opening I indicated that I thought today could be a high level consolidation day, and that's exactly what we got. The indices did thrust at the opening and got up to new rally highs, extending yesterday's gains, but then backed off sharply. That first pullback turned out to be the session lows, and then they backed and filled and vacillated in a high-level trading range for the rest of the session, firming into the close.

The Nasdaq 100 moved right up near the highs for the day, up 37.39. The Dow was up 108, closing at 2378, just 21 points off the high. And the S&P 500 closed 3 points off the high, up 13 1/2, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 8.80 or about 2 1/2 percent.

Technicals were positive by a little less than 2 to 1on advance-declines on New York and about 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was the story today, with the ratio of a little less than 2 to 1 positive on The NYSE with a total of 2.15 billion traded. Nasdaq traded almost 2.9 billion with a 3 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, with several point-plus gainers. Leading the way today was Mercadolibre (MELI), up 6.62, or more than 13 percent. Sigma Designs (SIGM) had a stellar day today, up 3.94, or nearly 9 1/2 percent. In the shipping sector TBS International (TBSI) was up 2.34, DryShips (DRYS) 2.81, and Excel Maritime (EXM) up 1.13.

Junior solars came on strong, particularly in the afternoon, with Canadian Solar (CSIQ) up 1.64 and Ascent Solar (ASTI) 1.28. Solarfun (SOLF), despite a secondary and early morning hard hit, came back 2 points off its low , closing down just 66 cents on the day.

Other stocks of note, China Finance Online (JRJC) at 15 was up 3.33 on 2.4 million shares, a nearly 30 percent gain. Portfolio positions Akeena Solar (AKNS), jumped 1.08 today, Emcore (EMKR) jumped 57 cents & Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 48 cents.

China Sunergy (CSUN), another solar play, up 76 cents in that strong solar group, and Cree Inc. (CREE) on continued strong merger rumors got over 30 and closed at 29.97, up 1.42 on 3.1 million, continuing its strong trend of recent days.

On the downside, Blue Phoenix (BPHX) was strong early on, reaching near 20, but got slammed by 3.25 before snapping back 80 cents, still down 1 1/4 on the day. The SDS was down 1.11, and the QID 1.62 as you'd expect, being reverse ETFs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices continued the big reversal of yesterday early on in the morning, but then went into a sideways consolidation, but a healthy looking one, and I would not be surprised to see them extend once they break out above the top of the range.

Right now, resistance is right near the close on the NDX at 1825-26, and just above here on the S&P 500 at around the 1355 area. So we'll be watching those levels tomorrow.

On the downside, support is around 1795-98 on the Nasdaq 100 and 1335-38 area on the S&P 500.

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.