We had an exciting steady sharp rally today after the market opened sharply lower. They turned immediately around and edged higher in the first hour, actually looked like the indices may be forming bear flags, but they broke to the upside. When they did that, the shorts ran for cover and the market ran sharply higher, pulled back mid-day and flagged, but it was a 3-wave affair that held support, and then in the afternoon they resumed the rally. With just 10 minutes to go they were at the highs for the day and had taken out the post-FOMC announcement rally high on the Nasdaq 100, but the S&P 500 got right to it and failed. With 10 minutes to go the market sold off sharply, and after the close Google announced a short-fall in earnings and the stock got hammered from 564 down to 509, 55 points before bouncing, but does not augur well for a positive follow-through tomorrow.

Net on the day the Dow closed up 207 1/2, the S&P 500 up 22.70, and the Nasdaq 100 just under 33. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up a paltry 0.19 today, with semiconductors still weak.

The technicals were very positive by 3 to 1 on advance-declines on New York and more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 4 1/2 to 1 positive on New York and more than 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Total volume on New York was just under 2.2 billion, and Nasdaq traded 2.8 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was active, but many stocks that we follow -- the junior growth-type stocks -- did not have an exceptionally good day, although there several outstanding issues. The shippers by far led the way today, with DryShips (DRYS) soaring another 6.08, Excel Maritime (EXM) up 4.27 and TBS International (TBSI) up 2.40. Sigma Designs (SIGM) which opened lower and dipped under 42 earlier in the day, closed at 45.22, up 1.95, a nice reversal back to the upside on that one.

Other than that, there were no point-plus gainers on our board.

Other stocks of note, portfolio position Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) was up 70 cents, DG FastChannel (DGIT) 70 cents, Eschelon Corp. (ELON) up 63 cents, China Finance Online (JRJC) up 90 cents, Chart of the Week PTEC up 80 cents, Taser (TASR) 61 cents, Chindex (CHDX) 63 cents and China Natural Resources (CHNR) 63 cents as well.

On the downside, Blue Phoenix (BPHX) got hammered after announcing earnings, dropping 3.11, a big percentage loss to 14.91. The SDS lost 2.34 and QID 92 cents, but are firming in the aftermarket with GOOG dropping sharply.

In any case, the result of today's action was a confirmation that the consolidation of the last several days was likely a bullish one, and that the indices can work higher now. We'll be looking for a takeout of today's highs -- 1385-86 on the S&P and 1855-63 zone on the NDX, which is still overhead resistance.

So we'll see if the indices can get a decent follow through or whether the indices will do some retesting. But a very strong move today after such a very negative opening surprised many bears, I'm sure.

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.