The markets had a very strong session and a resilient one for the bulls, as the indices opened strong and went up all morning and sharply so, consolidated mid-day and then came on again at the end of the day and popped to new session and multi-month highs on both the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500, which finally broke out as well to confirm.

Net on the day the Dow was up over 13,000 to 13,010, up 190. The S&P 500 was up 23 3/4, and the Nasdaq 100 up 52 3/4, closing over 1980. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up nearly 4% today, up 15.13, and closed over 400 for the first time in 4 months, at 400.29.

Technicals were positive, as advance-declines were ahead by 22 to 9 on New York and a little more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volum was better than 3 to 1 on New York on total volume of just under 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded 2.3 billion, and had a very strong ratio of 4 1/2 to 1 positive on up volume over down volume.

Despite that, TheTechTrader.com board was mostly narrowly mixed, although there were some outstanding issues. The leading gainer today on our board was double portfolio position China Finance Online (JRJC), which jumped 3.53, up 17% on 2 1/2 million shares traded. It broke out above the February highs and closed there, a significant close which could lead to sharply higher levels.

Other stocks of note, VMware (VMW) surged in the afternoon, closing at 70.24, up 3.60, adding to the gains, now up about 29 points off its post IPO low set just 4 weeks ago.

TBS International (TBSI) gained 2.49, but in that same sector DryShips (DRYS) was only up 71 cents and Excel Maritime (EXM) only 35 cents.

Solar energy stocks had a difficult session, but did come back in the afternoon when oil firmed a little bit. Ascent Solar (ASTI) fell 77 cents, JA Solar (JASO) 1.38, Solarfun (SOLF) 36 cents, but Canadian Solar (CSIQ), which top to bottom moved more than 3 points intraday, managed to snap back 1.75 and close up 20 cents on the session.

Broadcom (BRCM) gained 92 cents, Chindex (CHDX) 45 cents, and Emcore (EMKR), up 83 cents to 7.01 on 2 3/4 million.

Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO) snapped back 57 cents today, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) up 98 cents.

Additional losers on the downside included Digital Ally (DGLY), which backed off 35 cents to close at 8.92. Agfeed Industries (FEED got hammered again, closing down 1.02 at 15.66. And Trina Solar (TSL) fell 74 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, despite yesterday's late sharp dip, traders decided that yesterday's news was bullish, and then this morning ,the economic news that was released was interpreted as not being all that bad, and resulted in a very strong rally today which took the indices to new multi-month highs.

We'll see if they can extend it tomorrow, but certainly a strong showing today.

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.