They broke the back of the three-week decline today with a gap-up at the get-go, which triggered an explosive rally.  The market rallied all morning with just a few minor consolidations and hit its peak for the session on the NDX just when lunch hour was beginning.  Then the indices went into a consolidation.

With about two hours to go, the indices rolled over to test initial support and held it, and when that occurred they rallied for the rest of the afternoon, closing back up near the highs on the NDX and up to a new high on the S&P and Dow.

It was stellar effort for the indices.  The Dow closed up 135, the S&P 500 up 16, the NDX 27.40 and the Composite nearly 32.

The SOX Index gained more than 2 percent, up 9 1/2 today.

The technicals were very positive by 3 to 1 on New York and about 2 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq on advance/declines.  Up/down volume was even better, nearly 7 to 1 on Nasdaq.  Total volume was a little less than 1 2/3 billion.  On New York the ratio was a little less than 6 to 1 on nearly the same volume.

There were a couple outstanding stocks on TheTechTrader.com board today.  BOOM, which got smashed down to near 30 1/2 in the morning, snapped back by 4 points in the last couple hours in a very strong late rally and closed up more than 2 points on the day.

MDKI, on a strong earnings report from their merger partner DCAI today, soared 2.10 and broke out of its recent downtrend.

Other stocks of note, FORD was up 91 cents to a new multi-year high, challenging its all-time high set back in 1996.  MDRX was up 46 cents, and WIND up 50 cents.

In the energy sector, alternative energy stock ENER gained 83 cents, and some of the junior energy stocks gave back some additional today, as oil dropped through support and closed down on the day.

In the large-cap sector, the SMH advanced 72 cents and the QQQQ 68 cents, led by QLGC up 66 cents, BRCM 57 cents, and INTC 34 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the key to today's movement on the hourly charts was that we broke up through key short-term price and moving average resistance, pulled back and retested them, and then closed strongly on the day.

I expect this rally to continue to test some higher levels.  The next area we'll be looking at is the 1495-1500 zone, which should be tested tomorrow on the NDX.  If it gets through that, which is key short-term resistance, they could accelerate this rally.

The S&P 500 resistance is up around the 1186-89 zone, and that should be tested tomorrow as well.

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.