The markets ended the week on a strong note and held support all session, closing at the high for the day and the week on the S&P 500.

The session started out with a move down. They quickly reversed after holding support, rallied back sharply to test yesterday afternoon’s highs, and then at that point went into a multi-hour consolidation just beneath those highs. With about an hour to go, they punched out, but were unable to follow through, slipped back, but did snapback into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was up 78.07 at 9864.94, the S&P 500 closed within 2 cents of its high for the day, up 6.01 at 1071.49, and the Nasdaq 100 was up nearly 10, up 9.97 to 1727.76.

Advance-declines were better than 3 to 2 positive on New York and better than 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 3 to 2 positive on New York on total volume of just under 1 billion, very light today. Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion and had a 12 to 7 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly fractionally changed, with just a few point-plus gainers. The Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) advanced up 2.19 to 86.42. Goldman Sachs (GS) added 1.13 to 189.30.

Rambus (RMBS) jumped 1.11 to 18.70 on rumors of a major legal settlement. Dendreon (DNDN) was strong mid-day and closed up 71 cents at 27.48.

Low-priced DepoMed (DEPO) gained 55 cents to 6.36, China TransInfo (CTFO) 54 cents to 12. RINO International (RINO) was up 65 cents to 23.60.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) in a very strong flu-vaccine sector, was up 70 cents to 8.76. Sinovac (SVA) rose 72 cents to 7.80, and NovaVax (NVAX) added 51 cents to 4.02 in that same sector.

American International Group (AIG) advanced 47 cents to 44.22, and U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) 48 cents to 37.16 as oil firmed again.

On the downside, there were just small fractional losses. The Direxion Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ) gave back 48 cents at 19.30, UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) 21 cents to 9.60, and the Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) down 40 cents to 11.32.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after a lower opening they jumped sharply, consolidated for several hours, and then ran back up into the close before backing off, but in last 5 minutes to came on again to close positively for the 4th session in a row, a very good way to end the week.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.