We had a very strong session to start the week and a nice rebound from Friday's steep losses, but the day did start out with a move lower and then a quick retest. That was successful and triggered a morning rally that snapped it back to take out late Friday's high on the S&P 500 but failed to do so on the Nasdaq 100. They then backed off late morning, retested successfully, then moved to afternoon highs on the S&P 500 and Dow, but again the NDX did not take out late Friday afternoon's snapback high.

The late afternoon pullback took the NDX down through support, but the S&P 500 held, and when that occurred they turned it around late in the session and moved sharply higher into the close, with the S&P and Dow closing at the highs for the day going away and the Nasdaq 100 not far off them.

Net on the day the Dow closed up 177, the S&P 500 23 1/3, and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 16, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) nearly 5 1/4 today.

Technicals were much stronger on New York today, where advance/declines were 25 to 7 positive. On Nasdaq that number was less than 2 to 1 . Up/down volume was 7 to 1 positive on New York on lighter volume of a little under 1 2/3 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 2 billion shares, and had a 7 to 3 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com was active and narrowly mixed with some outstanding gainers. Acordia Pharmaceuticals (ACOR) on positive drug news jumped 5.50 on 4.8 million, to a new all-time high. Cree Inc. (CREE) , one of our Charts of the Week this week, opened lower but turned it around sharply and ran more than 3 points off the low to close up 2.09 on the day on 3.1 million shares. Excel Maritime (EXM) was up 1.16.

Other gainers of note, Chart of the Week Cepheid (CPHD) advanced 54 cents, Cardica (CRDC) 53 cents, and Sigma Designs (SIGM) 52 cents. TBS International (TBSI) also in the shipping gained 60 cents. And Chart of the Week Ultralife Batteries (ULBI) closed at 20.63, up 33 cents.

On the downside, point-plus losers included China Finance Online (JRJC), down 1.56 today, and Canadian Solar (CSIQ) , which had a difficult session in a generally lower junior solar group, down 1.11 today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices went lower in the morning, rallied mid-day, retested in the afternoon and came on strong at the close, a very good day technically for the indices, as the retest held near the Fib retracements on the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P, so we have an opportunity here to extend this rally and I believe we will do so over the next few days.

Overhead resistance to contend with is in the 1850-60 zone on the NDX, and then 1365-70 zone on the S&P 500. Those are the initial levels to keep an eye 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.