Wall Street had another strong session today, although they gave back a chunk of it in the last hour, but still closed with strong gains across the board with excellent technicals.

The day started out with a big gap up. They ran hard and steadily in the morning, reached the session highs right around noon, and then pulled back, retested, bounced and failed to take out the highs and made lower highs, and rolled over in the last hour .

Still, net on the day the Dow was up 216 Ã,½ at 7978, with a high of nearly 100 points greater than that. The S&P 500 at 834.38 was up 23.30, 11 points off its high. The Nasdaq 100 at 1294.30 was up 41.79, but about 18 points off its high. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) closed up 10 to 243.88, a gain of nearly 4 percent.

The technicals were extremely strong. Advance-declines were 2718 to 393 on New York and 2195 to 587 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was even better, more than 10 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of about 1.87 billion. Nasdaq traded just under 2.2 billion and had a more than 6 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, with many multiple-point gainers. Leading the way was Apple (AAPL), up 4.02 to 112.71. Agriculture stocks were generally firm, with Potash (POT) at 84.76 up 1.83 and Agrium (AGU) at 38.03 up 66 cents. But Mosaic (MOS) lost 6 cents today to 23.87.

It was quite a strong session for Central European Media (CETV), closing at 13.40, up 1.43. Amazon (AMZN) advanced 2.84 to 76.34. Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH), getting as high as 17.70, closed at 16.90, up 1.29. Akamai (AKAI) tagged 22 today, but closed at 21.55, up 1.67, a nearly 6-month high. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) had a strong snapback session, up 1.48 to 14.95 on nearly 4 million.

Financials lagged and were mixed today. JP Morgan (JPM) was up just 7 cents, Morgan (MS) lost 62 cents, General Electric (GE) was up 57 cents, Wells Fargo (WFC) up 85 cents, and Bank of America (BAC) up just 19 cents.

Rambus (RMBS) gained 49 cents to 10.02, SunPower (SPWR) 97 cents to 25.56. TeleCommunication Systems (TSYS) at 9.67 was up 30 cents. CBG had a strong session, closing at 4.66, up 67 cents on 15 1/2 million shares.

Best Buy (BBY) got up to 41.32 this morning, but closed under 40 at 39.88, still up 91 cents but way off its high.

On the downside, American Italian Pasta (AIPC) gave back a big chunk, reaching as low as 30.31 in the morning, but closed at 32.10, still down 1.79 in a nasty session. Sequenom (SQNM) lost 33 cents to 14.22.

But the ultrashorts were obviously the story on the downside today, with the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) down 7.48 to 46.30, the SKF down 5.79 to 88.33, and the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) down 5.07 to 54.29. The Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) lost 1.72 to 17.72.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns the 3-week rally extended today to new highs above 1311 on the NDX, closing at 1291, and above 845 on the SPX, closing at 833. So we'll see if the late sell-off was meaningful or not, and if they can extend the rally tomorrow or whether profit-taking will set in.

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.