It was another up-session and the market finished an excellent week.  It was, I understand, the sixth-best first week of January in the last 56 years, so that augurs very well for stocks not only in January but for the year.

But a good follow-up for next week, after perhaps a bit of consolidation, which would be healthy and would augur well for stocks for the rest of the month.

In any case, the day started out with a gap-up again.  The indices backed off and held support again.  From there they rallied for the rest of the session until about an hour ago when they consolidated and backed off.

But late in the session, perhaps on some late short-covering, the markets came on again and closed near the highs for the day going away, with the Dow at 10,959, up 77.  The S&P 500 closed up nearly 12 and the Nasdaq 100 up nearly 30.  The SOX Semiconductor Index was up a whopping 11, more than 2 percent today, and certainly pushed Nasdaq higher for most of the session.

Many semiconductor stocks were strong.  In particular, Broadcom (BRCM) was up 2.30, a stock we follow closely.

Reviewing the technicals, advance-declines were 3 to 1 positive on New York and 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was super, particularly on Nasdaq, where it was 3 ½ to 1. Total volume was more than 2 ¼ billion, and on New York it was nearly 1 ¾ billion.

So, a combined 4 billion shares traded on New York and Nasdaq today.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, but other than Broadcom and a couple others it was fractionally mixed.  The only point-plus gainers were Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), up 1.80, and NeoMagic (NMGC), up 1.02 on heavy volume ,both to new highs.

Other stocks of note, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) advanced 50 cents & hit an ALL TIME high.  Nuance Communications (NUAN), one of our model portfolio positions, was up 55 cents.  Neoware Systems (NWRE), another stock of ours, went to a new all-time high, up 65 cents.  Rambus (RMBS) was up 71 cents.  Smith Micro (SMSI), one of our old favorites, snapped back with a vengeance today, up 82 cents on heavy volume.

There were fractional gains in Rediff.com India (REDF), up 35 cents; Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 31 cents; and Applied Signal (APSG) up 31 cents.

Among the tracking stocks, the SMH was up 69 cents and the QQQQ up 76 cents.

On the downside, there were fractional losses today in the SFBC International (SFCC), down 84 cents, and Endwave (ENWV), down 60 cents, along with Astea International (ATEA), one of our portfolio holdings, down 34 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, as indicated in our first paragraph the markets had a phenomenal week, spring-boarding off Tuesday’s early morning lows, stair-stepping up strongly all week, with the sixth-best start in last 56 years, an excellent way to begin the year and the month for sure.

Let’s see what the bulls have left next week.

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.