The stock market indices had another up-session. I believe that's 7 out of 8 sessions this year, and they closed not too far off the highs for the day. But they were quite volatile in the morning.

The day started out with a gap down. They then held support at 1880 NDX and 1144 S&P 500 and bounced sharply and quickly higher nearly matching yesterday's rally highs but couldn't get through. Then they rolled over hard and retested those lows, once again holding successfully, which triggered a 5-wave advance over the next four hours that reached nominal new session highs and nominal 2009 SPX highs at a tad over 1150 with an hour to go.

In the last hour they did pull back on some profit-taking, and closed off those highs

Net on the day the Dow was up 29.78 at 10710.55, the S&P 500 up 2.78 at 1148.46, and the Nasdaq 100 up just 0.39 at 1886.52, because the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which was down 2.13 today and lagged at 356.96, put pressure on Nasdaq all session.

Advance-declines were positive by 17 to 13 on New York and 15 1/2 to 11 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 5 to 4 positive on New York on a light total volume of 876 million. Nasdaq traded more than 2 1/4 billion and had a 13 to 9 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly lower today. On the plus side, MAP Pharmaceuticals (MAPP) was up 1.42 to 13.82, portfolio position ArcSight (ARST) up 1.16 to 26.99, Telestone Technologies (TSTC) up 88 cents to 21.40, and Mindspeed (MSPD) up 69 cents to 6.62.

Among the ETFs, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) rose 1.15 to 85.42, and the Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) 46 cents to 57.56.

Other than that, there were just small fractional gainers among the stocks we follow.

New portfolio position Ultralife Battery (ULBI) was up 43 cents to 5.20, and Crocs (CROX) advanced 78 cents to 7.08.

On the downside, China Automotive (CAAS) fell 1.16 to 23.24, and China Agritech (CAGC) 1.03 to 36.45, closing 3 off its earlier high when it set a new all-time high at 39.75.

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) got hammered, as solar stocks got smashed on news from Germany about their government's intentions to raise some of their fees. The stock fell 2.73 to 28.01. Trina Solar (TSL) in that group closed at 52.22, down 6.96.

Boxer Short Medifast (MED) got hammered again in an extension of its recent sharp down wave, losing $4.01 to 22.99, RINO International (RINO) lost 78 cents to 27.37, Origin Agritech (SEED) 59 cents to 12.95, SmartHeat (HEAT) 44 cents to 16.19, and Sourcefire (FIRE) 45 cents to 24.68. China Green Agriculture (CGA) gave back 42 cents to 16.09 and A-Power Energy (APWR) 47 cents to 16.99, many of them Chinese stocks that were pressured lower again today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were volatile in the morning and then narrowed to the apex of intraday wedge patterns by mid-day. Subsequently they broke out and rallied in the afternoon and set nominal new highs on the SPX but failed to do so on the NDX, rolling over towards the end of the day.

The direction still remains in doubt, although the S&P 500 tagged 1150 today, a new 10-month rally high, which may be giving indications that the market has room to run.

However, tomorrow is options expiration and a lot can happen after that. So we'll see going forward whether the market wants to continue higher or change direction. We should know more by early next week!

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