It was a solid up-day on Wall Street at the close, but they took an interesting path. Futures gapped up sharply and ran up to yesterday's highs on the Nasdaq 100, but fell short on the S&P 500, and then rolled over in a 3-wave decline that lasted all morning, but held at the 2-day rising trendlines. Then they started a 5-wave advance that lasted several hours, reaching back up right near the early highs on the Nasdaq 100 but far short of it on the S&P 500, and when that occurred they rolled over hard again to test the trendlines.

But in the last 10-15 minutes, opposite to what happened yesterday, the indices spiked up to close solidly in the plus column by 2 to 2 Ã,½ %.

Net on the day the Dow was up almost 190, the S&P 500 up 24, and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 32. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) also had a good session, up almost 4 percent, up 9.12.

Advance-declines were very solid by 5 to 1 positive on New York and 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 5 to 1 positive on New York on a bit lighter total volume of a little over 1 1/3 billion. Nasdaq traded more than 2.6 billion and had a ratio of 3 to 1 on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was all green except for three short ETF instruments we follow.

The session was led by the agriculture stocks, which had a strong follow-up session. Chart of the Day POT was up another 5.31 to 84.71, CF up 6.35 to 60.13, AAPL up 6.49 at 111.04, and Mosaic (MOS) at 37.81 up 4.16. Agrium (AGU) was up 3.72 to 38.78.

Portfolio position ETF’s had a strong day: The DIG ETF was up 3.47, and the FXI Chinese ETF up 3.16. The QLD was up 1.98. Also, the EWZ Brazilian ETF up 3.52

Other gainers of note, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) was up 2.43 to 24.73, VISN up 2.32 to 10.52, UAL (UAUA) up 2.18 to 13.18, Focus Media (FMCN) at 18.78 up 2.14, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) at 32.81 was up 2.06, DryShips (DRYS) at 17.17 was up 1.96, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) snapping back nicely today, was up 1.73 to 9.89. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) at 9.86 was up 1.03.

On the downside, the short instruments we follow had a losing session, with the SDS down 6.08 to 87.52 and the QID down 3.85 to 64.15. The USO on a drop in oil dropped by 1.84.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the indices backed and filled, retested the lows and highs, and at the end of the day closed at the upper end of the ranges, with positive gains. A solid consolidation day with a strong ending put the indices back into the plus column. Not bad at all. We'll see how we close the week tomorrow.

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.