The indices had a strong session for Thursday, with all indices closing higher and close to the highs for the day going away.  The day started out with a move up off the pre-market strong futures.  Then they pulled back and retested successfully, and for the rest of the session moved up in a shallow angle of ascent and then accelerated in the last hour to close near the highs for the day, as indicated.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 55 ½, the S&P 500 up 5 1/3, and the Nasdaq 100 up 12 3/4.  The SOX Semiconductor Index was up 6 and really pushed Nasdaq today.

The technicals were positive by a little bit more than 3 to 2 on both advance-declines on both exchanges.  Up/down volume was positive by more than 2 to 1 on both exchanges. Total volume on New York was a fairly quiet 1.3 billion, with Nasdaq at about 1.5 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, led by a couple outstanding issues.  BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX), one of our current model portfolio positions, was up a whooping 2.38 on 14 million shares on some positive.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) continued its recent advances, up 1.09, and Neoware Systems (NWRE), another model portfolio position, was up 1.13 to a new multi-year high.

Other stocks of note, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) hit a new multi-year high, up 1.01.  Indian portfolio Sify Ltd. (SIFY) was up 82 cents and NeoMagic (NMGC) 94 cents.  Among other model portfolio positions, Internet Initiative Japan (IIJI) was up 93 cents, and Astea International (ATEA) up 54 cents.

On the downside, there were minor losses in Evergreen Solar (ESLR), China Energy Savings (CESV), and Viisage (VISG).

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, today's late action took out some minor resistance and closed near the highs for the day.  Despite the minor breakdown earlier this week on the Nasdaq 100 beneath key four-week support, the S&P did not follow and confirm, and then the year-end bullish tendencies brought them back up to where we are now, near key resistance. 

So we'll see if the market can make some further progress or whether they roll back at this point.

It should be a quiet week next week.  TheTechTrader.com is on vacation during the holidays and this will be our last closing market commentary until the New Year.

Happy Holidays, and good trading!

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.