The markets had a volatile session, but a got very strong finish, closing at the highs for the day on some of the indices and near them on the others.

The day started out with positive market futures, but they had come way off their early pre-market highs. They opened positive but then sold off immediately to retest yesterday's late lows, but held there. When that happened, they staged a very strong rally in the morning that took the Nasdaq 100 from about 1192 to 1137, about a 45-point rally. The S&P 500 went from about the 818 area up 848, about a 30-point rally over the next 2-3 hours. By lunch hour they reached their morning rally peak, and then rolled over sharply in early afternoon to do a very sharp plunge and retest the lows, However, they made higher lows, turned it around, and rallied very sharply back in the last hour, particularly the last 10 minutes at which point the S&P alone went from 832 to 850.

Net on the day the Dow was up 270 to 8419, the S&P 500 up 32.60 to just under 849, and the Nasdaq 100 up 38.84 to 1130. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) gained 2.45.

The technicals were solid today, with advance-declines positive by 24 to 7, or 3 1/2 to 1, on New York and by 2 1/2 to 1 positive Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 1.4 billion to the upside and only 171 million to the downside on New York, about an 8 to 1 ratio,. Nasdaq had about a 6 to 1 positive volume ratio, with 1.77 billion to the upside and only 292 million to the downside.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result of the late surge, closed mostly green. Leading the way were some of the ETFs, with the BGU up 2.93 to 30.63, the DIG 1.81, the FXI also up 1.81, the EWZ up 1.30, and the QLD up 1.44.

AAPL advanced 3.54 and ENER 2.64. Portfolio position EBS jumped to 24.24 up 1.87, and SQNM snapped back 1.90 to 15.97. AFAM was up 1.90, and portfolio position SPWR closed at 30.17, up 1.55.

Some of the agriculture stocks, despite a weak opening, turned it around, with CF closing at 45.95 up 1.73 and MOS at 27.16 up 1.76.

POT still was down on the day, off 1.27, and so was AGU ,which also did not make it back into the plus column, down 1.12.

Other stocks on the downside, the USO dropped 1.39, as oil went to 3 1/2-year lows. The SDS in the ultrashort ETF area got clobbered for 7.95, the BGZ 9.84, and the QID 5.82.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns we had two steep spike lows today, making higher lows on the second low, triggering a very late strong rally that took the indices to near their session highs. It was a promising session for the indices, but everything will depend on tomorrow's action and whether they get a follow-through and take out overhead resistance. Right now we'll be watching the 1133-37 zone, which is just above on the NDX, and the current level on the SPX at 850, which is immediate resistance, followed by the 858-60 zone.

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.