The stock market indices had a strong session and closed near the session highs with a nice afternoon surge that tested major resistance at the intermediate declining tops lines.

The day started out with a backing and filling type pattern that looked more like bear flags, and when they failed to roll over they suddenly surged mid-morning up to short-term resistance. Then they backed and filled for a couple hours, but when they failed to break down and started to move higher late in the session they broke out to new session highs.

In the last 45 minutes or so, they backed off but came on again in the last 10 minutes to close firm on the day. The Dow was up 90, the S&P 500 up 11 1/4, and the Nasdaq 100 up 22.64. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 9.41, or nearly 3 percent.

The technicals made it back to the positive side by 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York and by about 4 to 3 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 1/2 to 1 positive on New York with more than 1.4 billion traded. Nasaq had about a 7 to 4 positive ratio on 2 1/3 billion shares.

TheTechTrader.com board was extremely mixed with both point-plus gainers and losers. On the plus side, portfolio position Converted Organics (COIN) gained 1.29, breaking out of a key 3-week consolidation. Other point-plus gainers were Origin Agritech (SEED), up 1.23 to 9.75, also breaking out of a key consolidation on strong volume.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) snapped back 1.05 today, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) 1.06. Other than that there were no other point-plus gainers on our board.

On the losing side, DryShips (DRYS) was down 2.12, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) 1.14, and China Natural Resources (CHNR) 1.23. Those were the point-plus losers on my board.

NutriSystem (NTRI), which we traded earlier in the session, was down 7.31 today, closing at 16.58 on a very poor earnings report, disappointing Wall Street.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices did come back from the abyss this morning, as they held near key support and rallied back towards the end of the day to key overhead resistance. Despite the nice gains today, nothing has been resolved in terms of the overall intermediate patterns, and we'll wait to see which direction they take, whether or not we can get a follow-through to today's rally on Thursday.

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.