For a day where the indices ended mixed, my board sure looked BIG green. The day started out with a move down, but they quickly recovered, snapped back sharply and took out Friday's highs, and then settled into a nice bullish consolidation pattern that lasted till abut mid-day. They then surged sharply higher, took out the highs and some overhead resistance, but ran up against key formidable resistance on the Nasdaq 100 near 1990, reaching as high as 1991.72. S&P 500 resistance at 1365 held back the market as well, and then they pulled back in a very orderly consolidation into the close, but managed to hold support.

Still, on the day the Dow was down 37 and the S&P 500 nearly unchanged, only up 0.11. But the Nadaq 100 was up 18 3/4, a solid session fueled by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which was up nearly 6 today.

Technicals were positive, even during the worst levels of the day, and that led us to believe we'd see a strong afternoon, and we certainly did. Advance-declines were 3 to 2 positive on New York and a little less than that on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 3 to 2 positive on New York, but nearly 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Total volume on Nasdaq was 1.85 billion, a little less than we've seen recently, and a light 1.15 billion on New York.

However, TheTechTrader.com board had an outstanding session. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) had a monster day, exploding nearly 10, closing at 76.86, reaching as high as 77.71, a new-all-time high on 6 1/2 million shares.

The solar energy group also did very well, with Canadian Solar (CSIQ) up 3.46 at 42.46, Solarfun (SOLF) up 2.85 to 21.59, and JA Solar (JASO) up 1.52 to 20.97.

Chinese stocks fared well, with China Natural Resources (CHNR) up 1.48, and China Finance Online (JRJC) up 1.34.

Despite the sharp reversal in oil, which reached new all-time highs today at 139.88 and reversed sharply lower, closing under 1.33, Pyramid Oil (PDO) still managed to gain 1.52 today and closed at 21.13. That was one of our Charts of the Week. Our other chart of the Week, A-Power Energy (APWR), had an excellent session, advancing 2.45 to 26.38 on 1.2 million.

In the shipping sector, DryShips (DRYS) was up 2.21, Excel Maritime (EXM) up 1.48 and TBS International (TBSI) 80 cents.

So, there were very strong performances today on our board.

On the downside, there were no losers of as much as a point on our board.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices did well to extend last week’s rally off Thursday’s lows and extend the snapback, but overhead resistance thwarted the rally towards the early afternoon and held them back from any further progress.

We'll see if they can break through or whether the declining tops lines and lateral price resistance will be the undoing of the market or not. This is a critical stage for the market, and we'll see what develops over the next few days.

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.