The markets had a very strong session today.  The futures were strong before the opening.  The market gapped up, ran strongly higher in the morning, broke out above key overheard resistance, particularly on the Nasdaq 100, which existed around the 1589-90 area.  Then they went into a 5-6 hour sideways flagging-type pattern, and came on again in the last hour to close at the highs for the day going away. 

The Dow was up 142, the S&P up 15 1/3, the Nasdaq 100 more than 24, and the SOX Index up 7 1/4.

It was a strong day across the board technically as well, with the advance-declines about 3 to 1 positive on New York and 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume, however,was even stronger with a 4 1/2 to 1 positive ratio on the NYSE and about 3 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq.  Total volume was about 1.4 billion on New York and about 1.45 billion Nasdaq.

It was a very positive day for TheTechTrader.com board, as most of the stocks we follow advanced today.  The most powerful move today was one of our Watchboard positions, Meadow Valley (MVCO), up 2.45 to 11.95 closing at the high for the day going away.

One of this week's new picks, Neoware (NWRE), was up 1.33 on 2.8 million.  Netflix (NFLX) advanced to a new multi  month rally high, up 1.22.

Junior biotech stocks in general were strong.  Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) advanced 76 cents, ID Biomedical (IDBE) was up 1.09 and ViroPharma (VPHM) was up 29 cents.

In the large-cap sector, Broadcom (BRCM) to a new multi-month high was up 1.76 to 44.80.  The Q's (QQQQ) were up 57 cents and the SMH 54 cents.

The only loser of note was Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), which after last week's strong move, gave back 1.02 today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the significance of today's action is that the markets broke out of their flag patterns and moved up across key resistance after consolidating on Thursday and Friday, as indicated earlier, on the Nasdaq 100.  The S&P broke out above the 1228 area, closing at 1233.

I'll be looking for a test of next resistance at the 1235-38 zone on the S&P 500.  Key overhead resistance now on Nasdaq is in the 1608-10 zone.

Good trading!

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.