The indices ended to the plus side, but it was a little roller coaster today. The day started with a burst to the upside. They got up to key overhead resistance, then backed and filled in bullish flag formations for a little more than an hour, and when everyone thought ABK would be announcing their funding plan & the stock was halted, the market spiked to the upside. But it was short-lived and the market pulled back just as sharply, bounced, and then sold off sharply when ABK finally announced they were going to self fund with a stock offering.

The market did right itself after a steep afternoon sell-off. They ran back to resistance, then backed off in the last hour, but came on again near the close.

Net on the day, the Dow up more than 41, the S&P 500 up nearly 7, and the Nasdaq 100 up nearly 10. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 3 1/2, or about 1 percent.

The technicals were positive by 3 to 2 on advance-declines on New York ,but just 15 to 13 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 5 to 3 positive on New York on 1.6 billion traded. Nasdaq traded just under 2.2 billion, and had about a 2 to 1 positive ratio on advancing volume over declining volume.

There were quite a few point-plus gainers on our board today. Leading the way once again was DryShips (DRYS), up 4.47. Excel Maritime (EXM) gained 1.16 and TBS International (TBSI) 2.46 also in the strong shipping sector.

But just as strong today were the junior solars, led by Canadian Solar (CSIQ), which announced strong earnings & revenue growth. It exploded for 3.23 to 22.22, on nearly 8 million traded today. Elsewhere inthat group, JA Solar (JASO) was up 1.32, Solarfun (SOLF) 49 cents, Ascent Solar (ASTI) 93 cents, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 86 cents.

Other stocks of note, current Fab 40 member XIDE advanced 1.13 today and broke out to 3-year highs. Mercadolibre (MELI) was up 1.26, , Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) 1.32 and Eschelon Corp(ELON) up 1.40, a strong percentage gain there. Portfolio positions Chindex (CHDX) gained 1.61, Emcore (EMKR) up 47 cents, along with Nextwave Wireless (WAVE), which jumped 33 cents today.

On the downside, there were no point-plus losers on our board, other than ABK, which dropped 2.02 to close at 8.70 after announcing their financing arrangements. MBI also dropped 80 cents in response to that. WM also dropped 59 cents.

Cree Inc. (CREE) dropped 75 cents today and was surprisingly weak. FuelTek (FTEK) announced strong earnings, but dropped 58 cents. China Finance Online (JRJC) backed off 43 cents, but China Natural Resources (CHNR) was up 50 cents.

Other stocks of note, QSC took a 40-cent hit, and UEPS was down 32 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices ran up to test the intraday declining moving averages on the hourly charts and backed off sharply from that level. Despite making nominal new rally highs, they could not follow through, and sold off mid day, but did bounce back to close positive on the session, which is something to be said.

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.