The market had three different movements today. One was sharply higher in the morning. Then there was a strong pullback and steady mid-day decline before they reversed in the afternoon, came on very strong at the close, closing at the highs for the day going away, at new rally highs on the S&P 500, in particular.

So, it was a very strong session for the bulls.

Net on the day the Dow was up 166, the S&P 500 20 and the Nasdaq 100 41 3/4. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up more than 2 1/2 percent, up 10.24.

It was an excellent close in what looked like late short covering spurring the market.

The technicals were positive by nearly 3 to 1 on advance-declines on New York, and about 2 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq Up/down volume was just about 4 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of a little over 1.2 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2 billion and had a 4 to 1 positive ratio on advancing volume over declining volume.

So, a very solid technical session and strong way to close the week indeed. It was not surprising, however, as the oscillators were at multi-week extremes, and the market was certainly due to snapback, particularly after the indices hit their declining channel bottoms yesterday.

What was a surprise was the fact that the market rolled over mid-day and held the pullback at a reasonable level and came on strong at the close.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but mostly higher. Shippers had a particularly good day. DryShips (DRYS) gained 2.41, Excel Maritime (EXM) 1.34, and TBS International (TBSI) 2.48.

Portfolio position Sequenom (SQNM) had a very strong session, up 2.10 to 14.94 on nearly 5 million.

Portfolio position Zoltek Companies (ZOLT) gained 98 cents. Chindex (CHDX) had a very strong snapback session after yesterday's debacle on surprisingly poor earnings. But after they explained in another announcement what the write-offs were all about, the operating net earnings still positive, the stock jumped back 1.72 today to close at 16.32.

Recent Chart of the Week Activision (ATVI) was up 49 cents to 34.37, near all-time highs. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) was up 1.11, JA Solar (JASO) 63 cents, and Solarfun (SOLF) 53 cents in the firm solar energy sector.

Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) snapped back to close near the highs for the day after being down as much as 3 1/2 points early in the day, closing up 65 cents on the day, just a penny off the high for the day.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) advanced 70 cents on nearly 1 million shares.

Emcore (EMKR) jumped 44 cents, another model portfolio position of ours.

On the losing side, oil continued its weakness. GeoResources (GEOI) dropped 1.96, Mexco Energy (MXC) 1.01, and Pyramid Oil (PDO) 36 cents. As a result of declining oil today, the US Oil Trust ETF (USO) was down 1.80. Northern Oil & Gas (NOG) also dropped 32 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices thrust higher, following up on yesterday's late surge, but rolled over mid-day similar to yesterday. The difference today was that they halted the decline in mid-afternoon and came on strong at the close to close at the highs for the day on the S&P 500, right near it on the Dow and not far from it on the Nasdaq 100.

It was a very strong session to close the week. We'll see if additional and more potent overhead resistance in the 1980-90 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1370-75 zone on the S&P 500 will be able to hold back the market rally.

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.