We had a volatile day but an up-day as the market started out with a huge gap-up in the morning.  They then sold off rather quickly, retested, and then rallied to higher highs, taking out the recent highs on the S&P 500 and breaking through price and moving average resistance.  But that was not confirmed by the Nasdaq 100, which matched its high of yesterday but backed off price and moving average resistance, and then later in the afternoon when they rallied again, they made lower highs and then backed off into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was up nearly 100, the S&P 500 up more than 9, and the NDX up 13 1/2.  The SOX Index was up a solid 15 points today, just under 3 percent. 

The technicals were strong with advance/declines 21 to 11 positive on New York and 20 to 9 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was also strong with more than 2 billion traded on New York and a 7 to 3 positive ratio.  Nasdaq had a better than 2 to 1 positive ratio, with just under 2 1/2 billion traded, very heavy volume

TheTechTrader.com board was very active, mostly higher.  There were just a couple stocks up more than a point.  The gainers were led by Phazar (ANTP) up 1.89 on nearly 1 million, and Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), which got slammed in the morning to new pullback lows near 48,but it rallied 4 points during the course of the session and closed up 1.46 on the session on 3 1/4 million.

Other stocks in the alternative energy group were also strong as well, with Distributed Energy Systems (DESC) up 53 cents, Evergreen Solar (ESLR) 60 cents and DayStar Technologies (DSTI) 26 cents.

Other stocks of note on our board today, MakeMusic (MMUS) was up 88 cents, Forward Industries (FORD) up 80 cents, Sierra Wireless (SWIR) up 61 cents, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) 53 cents and Internet Initiative Japan (IIJI) up 47 cents.

On the downside, there were fractional losses across the board, led by Rediff.com India (REDF), off 44 cents today, giving back some of yesterday's big gains.  NeoMagic (NMGC) also gave back 31 cents.

But for the most part it was a fairly mixed session on TheTechTrader.com board but an up-day on Wall Street.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, key overhead resistance was taken out on the blue chips, but there wasn't much of a follow-through and the Nasdaq 100 simply did not confirm.  So the jury is still out whether we've turned the corner or whether we have another leg down, which I believe may be the case.

Tomorrow may be a pivotal day in determining that.

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.