It was as good a day as it gets. The indices gapped up, ran hard all morning, consolidated mid-day, vacillated around the FOMC announcement and then exploded in the afternoon, particularly late in the session when they ran hard into the close, closing at the highs for the day going away.

Net on the day the Dow was 331.62, the S&P 500 up 35.85, or nearly 3 percent, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 4 percent, up nearly 65. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up about 3 percent, up 10.63 today.

So a fantastic session for the indices & for the bulls.

The technicals were solidly ahead. Advance-declines were positive by about 3 to 1 on New York and by 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 4 1/2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded 2 1/3 billion and had a ratio of 6 to 1 on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board however, was disappointingly narrowly mixed with a just a few outstanding gainers. The two leading gainers were our Charts of the Week this week. Almost Family (AFAM) was up 3.43 to 37, and Pharmasset (VRUS) was up 2.08 to 24.09.

The only other point-plus gainers on our board were the QQQQ, up 1.50 at 45.93, and United Airlines (UAUA), up 1.31 today on a very strong airline surge due to the price of oil closing below $119 a barrel.

Other stocks of note, A-Power Energy (APWR) went for a wild ride today. It got hammered in the morning, and came back with a roar, running up $4 in just the last 45 minutes on heavy volume, closing up 90 cents on the day, at 23.00.

Shipping was narrowly mixed, with DryShips (DRYS) off 48 cents, Excel Maritime (EXM) up 53 cents, and TBS International (TBSI) down 2.11.

Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) lost 1.57 and Canadian Solar (CSIQ) lost 31 cents in the very soft alternative energy sector, with the price of oil being down today.

Exide Technologies (XIDE) was up 47 cents, WM up 35 cents, SDTH up 55 cents to 9.56 and JA Solar (JASO) up 48 cents today.

On the downside, the USO dropped 1.93 with the drop in oil. The SDS (ultrashort SPY) was down 3.81 and the QID (ultrashort QQQQ) down 2.89, as would be expected in the big up day. The DUG (ultrashort oil & gas) got up to just under 40, but reversed to the downside, losing 54 cents to 38.35.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices exploded, ran hard most of the session, paused mid-day, and then came on with a bang at the close, taking out overhead price and moving average resistance, closing right near the neckline of a very promising-looking head and shoulders bottoming pattern developing over the past 4-5 weeks on the Nasdaq 100 near the 1870-75 zone.

The S&P 500 chart is similar, but has overhead resistance in the 1288-92 zone, which it is now approaching, as it closed at 1285 today. Tomorrow should be a very important day for the indices. If they can burst through key overhead resistance zones, that could trigger a very substantial short covering fueled rally that would surprise quite a few people.

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.