It was another volatile session, very similar to yesterday, except for the late afternoon rally.

The indices opened lower, bounced around, and then took off in a very sharp rally that took the NDX from 1105 to 1158, a 53-point rally inside of an hour and a half. The S&P 500 went from about 828 to about 864 in that time frame. By late morning they were consolidating, and it appeared they may go higher, but when they were unable to punch through, they rolled over sharply, went through a couple minor layers of support, held at the rising bottoms line in mid-afternoon, and took off again with the NDX jumping from around 1117 to 1166, right where it closed, at the high for the day going away. The S&P 500 jumped from 835 to 873, and closed just under 871 .

Net on the day the Dow closed just under 8600, up about 173, the S&P 500 was up nearly 22 to 870.74, and the Nasdaq 100 up over 36 to 1166.20. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) ha a really solid day today, up 12.38 to close at 198.07, about a 6 Ã,½ % gain.

Advance-declines were positive by 2 to 1 on New York and by better than 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 3 1/2 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of more than 1 1/2 billion. Nasdaq traded about 2 1/4 billion, with 1.8 billion of it to the upside and only 423 million to the downside, a ratio of 4 1/2 to 1 .

TheTechTrader.com board was generally higher. Leading the way was recently added portfolio position SunPower (SPWR), which jumped 4.23 to 34.40 on 2 2/3 million shares. Apple (AAPL) gained 3.43 to 95.90, and was our Chart of the Day. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) had a fantastic day, dropping down to 23.91 in the morning and getting up to 28 1/2, before closing at 28.38, up 2.69 on 2.4 million shares, a very solid reversal session there.

MS in a strong financial sector jumped 1.81 and at one point was 3 points off its morning low. BAC jumped 1 to 15.05, closing near the high for the day going away on 127 million shares. C jumped 60 cents to 7.82 on 312 million shares.

The Q's had a strong day, trading 223 million shares, closing at 28.62, up 79 cents, the BGU, up 2.30 to 32.93, and the QLD, up 1.20 to 25.15.

Other stocks of note, RIMM reversed more than 4 points off its low, closing up 1.64 on the day to 38.96, on heavy volume of almost 57 million shares.

Solar stocks, in addition to SPWR, were firm. SOLF jumped 1 off its low and closed up 60 cents on the day at 4.92, CSIQ gained 22 cents.

Portfolio position QCOR hit a new 13-year high today, tested its all-time high and backed off, but still closed up 33 cents at 9.05.

ACH at 12.08 was up 67 cents to a new 6 week high.

On the downside, the agriculture stocks did not have a good day, with POT down 2.39 to 52.81. AGU lost 67 cents to 25.64. MOS gave back 26 cents to 26.90, but CF gained 37 cents after being down 2 1/2 earlier in the day, closing at 46.32.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were very volatile today, moved down early, had a very strong morning rally, a mid-day sharp pullback, but then another equally sharp rally back to reach the highs by the end of the day. The overall chart patterns on the hourly charts are very promising, with head and shoulders type bottoms forming , as a right shoulder was formed in the last couple days, and if we can get a thrust back over 1200 on the Nasdaq 100 and over the 900-10 on the S&P 500, we may be able to really accelerate higher.

We'll see how it goes, but the patterns are there for the asking, and we'll see if they can follow through.

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.