The market had the biggest day of the year today. The Fed announced they were cutting interest rates sharply, at which point the markets were already up substantially on the session. On the announcement they actually dipped sharply but held near the lows for the day, then came on strongly in the last 75 minutes, with the Nasdaq 100 rallying from 1712 to 1760, a 48-point rally. The S&P 500 rallied about 34 points during the same period of time and also closed right near the highs for the day going away. The Dow rallied 300 points in that period of time and closed up 420 on the day, with the S&P 500 up 54, the Nasdaq 100 up 74, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 13, or 3 1/2 percent. Even the OEX was up 25 today, a huge move for that index.

The technicals were VERY strongly ahead by about 9 to 1 on advance-declines on New York and more than 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was more than 19 to 1 positive on New York. Nasdaq had more than 2.4 billion shares and about a 12 to 1 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, as you can imagine, led by far today by the brokers. Lehman (LEH) and Goldman Sachs (GS) announced good earnings, and had a positive conference call for Lehman, which continued its amazing comeback from yesterday's steep decline. From yesterday's low at 20 1/4, the stock closed today at 46.49, up 14.74 for today’s session on 142 million shares.

Bear Stearns (BSC) managed to gain 1.10, but that had been much higher earlier in the day, when it was up about 3 1/2 points. That traded 166 million.

Other financial stocks had a strong session, with WM up 1.36 on 77 million shares, MF Financial up 2.05 on 25 1/2 million, and MBI up 1.51 on nearly 7 million shares.

Other stocks of note, the shippers had an excellent session, with DryShips (DRYS) up 6.07, Excel Maritime (EXM) 4.17 and TBS International (TBSI) 3.31.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) snapped back 1.32, Mercadolibre (MELI) 2.08, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 1.63, Chindex (CHDX) 1.32, UEPS 1.32, Global Solutions (GSOL) 1.09 and FuelTek (FTEK) up 3.09.

On the downside, there were fractional losses in Converted Organics (COIN), down 47 cents, and DCR, which gave back 56 cents on a $3 rise in oil. But the loser of the day was Emcore (EMKR) on a negative article knocking it down 2.05 to 6.78 on 15 million shares.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, hovered early on and then moved steadily higher until the FOMC announcement, at which point they had a sell the news reaction which last for about half an hour. They righted themselves with about 75 minutes to go and exploded to the upside, closing near the highs for the day going away.

A stellar day for the bulls, as the shorts shorts were squeezed all session. The key to today's action was that the Nasdaq 100 closed up near last week's highs in the 1362-65 zone, and we'll be watching whether they are able to get a decent follow through and penetrate through that area tomorrow. The S&P 500 also closed near last week's highs, which is up around the 1333-34 zone.

Those are the levels we'll be keeping an eye tomorrow on to see whether we get a strong follow-through day and confirm that we've made an important low.

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.