The stock market indices started the week in bullish fashion and rallied steadily, although in a choppy manner. The S&P 500 had 9 separate waves up and down today, but in a rising channel that ended near the highs for the day going away.

The day started out with a move up from the get-go, followed by a pullback to retest the intraday moving averages successfully on 2-3 different occasions. The indices then rallied mid-day, became choppy again in the afternoon, and then rallied again in the last 20 minutes.

Net on the day the Dow was up 118.20 at 10185.53, the S&P 500 up 15.32 at 1089.19, and the Nasdaq 100 up 19.68 at 1760.72. Helping Nasdaq, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up nearly 3 percent, or 9.65, at 325.72.

Advance-declines were 4 to 1 positive on New York and 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 9 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of just over 1 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 2.2 billion and had a 4 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. The Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) jumped 3.02 to 72.42, and the Direxion Large Cap Bull 3X Shares (BGU) 2.21 to 48.83. The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) was up 1.08 to 36.72.

The star of the day percentage-wise was Conolog (CNLG), up 1.90 to 4.01 on 21 1/2 million shares, a gain of 92 percent. It traded as high as 4.72 earlier in the day.

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) advanced 1.09 to 22.22 in a recovering Chinese sector, which also included RINO International (RINO) up 50 cents to 22.72, Origin Agritech (SEED) 30 cents to 10.90, Telestone Technologies (TSTC) 98 cents to 14.36, SmartHeat (HEAT) 46 cents to 11.85, China Agritech (CAGC) 91 cents to 28.24, and China Green Agriculture (CGA) 41 cents to 14.74, along with A-Power Energy (APWR) up 79 cents to 12.77.

Other stocks of note, Rambus (RMBS) closed up 78 cents to 22.72 and Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals (HITK) 75 cents to 42.29. Genco (GNK) was up 78 cents to 19.98. In addition, Sourcefire (FIRE) gained 1.63 to 22.48

On the downside, ultrashorts led the way. The UltraPro Short S&P 500 ProShares (SPXU) fell 1.81 to 38.33, the Direxion Financial Bull 3x Shares (FAS) 87 cents to 19.05, the Direxion Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 86 cents to 18.02, and Direxion Small Cap 3x Bear (TZA) 43 cents to 10.35.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices recovered off steep oversold conditions to close near the declining moving averages on the hourly charts, and near key price resistance levels at 1090 SPX and 1762 NDX. We’ll see what kind of extension, if any, they can get tomorrow.

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