A spectacular start to the week, as the futures were sharply higher before the opening, and as a result the indices and many stocks gapped up at the opening. The indices had a sharp morning rally which hit its morning high about 75 min after the opening . They then went into a downward sloping multi-hour consolidation . When an afternoon nominal downside break failed to follow through, they turned around and rallied strongly, moving to new session and 3 week highs, with the Nasdaq 100 reaching the 1237 range and the S&P 500 getting up to near 919. A late pullback brought them back sharply, although in the last few minutes they bounced again.

Net on the day the Dow was up 298.70, reaching over 9000 at one point, up about 400 points at its high. The S&P 500 gained 33.63 to 909.70, about 9 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 47.19 to 1225.06, about 12 points off its high

Advance-declines were decidedly positive by nearly 4 to 1 on New York and by 2 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was almost 7 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of 1.7 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2 1/3 billion and had an almost 6 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was almost all higher, except for just a few issues as well as the ultrashort ETF instruments. The BGZ fell 6.37, the QID 5.72 and SDS 6.55.

On the plus side, the BGU was up 3.72 to 37.10, DIG up 1.85, EWZ 1.43, FXI 2.47 and the QLD up 2.04. The USO also advanced 1.87 on firming crude oil.

Leading the way were the ag stocks, with Potash (POT) at 61.33 up 7.94, CF at 50.73 up 3.68, and MOS at 30.05 up 2.48. AGU also gained 2.20 to 26.25.

Shippers rebounded with a strong thrust to the upside, as DryShips (DRYS) soared more than 50% today, closing at 7.17, up 2.42 on more than 27 million, which was the largest volume day in the company's history. That was our Chart of the Day. EXM also advanced 1.31 to 5.05, in that sector.

Solar stocks were firm, with SPWR up 2.19 to 34.89. STP gained $1.54.

Financials were strong, with BAC up 2.60 and C up 76 cents. MS advanced 58 cents.

Portfolio position QCOR at 9.54 was up 42 cents, pressing its all-time highs set 13 years ago.

Other stocks of note, SQNM at 16.57 was up 94 cents, portfolio position UEPS at 11.80 was up 81 cents, portfolio position EBS at 24.38 was up 1.52, and AFAM had a terrific session, at 48.94 up 4.05. ACH, one of our Charts of the Watch this week, at 13.82 was up 2. AAPL had a very strong move today, reaching near 101, closing at 99.72, up 5.72.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the indices had a 3-wave advance today and then sold off late in the session, but ended with a strong gain and a nice follow-through to Friday's session.

We're expecting stronger prices for the balance of the week, but we'll see how it goes over the next day or two.

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.