The market had a strong, but rather volatile, up-session on Friday.

The day started out with a sharp move down to new lows on the NDX that did not get confirmation from the S&P 500 and Dow.  We indicated yesterday that could be a scenario for a rally, and certainly got a very strong surge in the morning that saw the NDX jump a quick 20 points in less than half hour.  The S&P 500 also moved strongly higher for about 9 points in the same period of time.

The indices then went into a four-hour consolidation.  It appeared they were going to break out of that to the upside on a couple occasions, but couldn't follow-through, and then sold off rather sharply and did a retest of about a 50% retracement on the S&P, and about a .618 Fibonacci retracement on the Nasdaq 100.  Then a last hour snapback brought them back up towards the earlier consolidation range.

Net on the day the Dow was up 104 and the S&P 500 up 9.35, but the NDX was only up 3.14 today, held back by the SOX Semiconductor Index, which was down 1.19.

However, the technicals were very solid by 23 to 10 on New York and nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The up/down volume was very strong although total volume wasn't particularly strong.  They traded about 1.5 billion on New York with a 3 1/2 to 1 positive ratio of up vs. down volume.  Nasdaq was a little less than 2 1/2 to 1 positive, with a total of about 1 3/4 billion traded.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed.  The leader was Trimeris (TRMS), up 1.95 on 2.6 million.  But no other stocks on my board was up as much as a point.

Other gainers of note, Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) was up 50 cents, Rediff.com India (REDF) 48 cents, Sify Ltd. (SIFY) 55 cents, Viisage (VISG) 33 cents, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) 39 cents, and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) also 39 cents.

On the downside, Broadcom (BRCM) was among the loss leaders, down 1.44. Universal Display (PANL) was down 1.48, PW Eagle (PWEI) 1.38, and Radvision (RVSN) 1.12.

Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) dropped 96 cents and Apple Computer (AAPL) 74 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the pre-market oscillators were oversold, and when they dropped further in the morning that set the stage for a snapback rally. The market staged a terrific rebound that failed at 21-day moving average resistance on the NDX 60 min chart and rolled over mid-afternoon before recovering.

The stage is set for a potential bottom to be put in.  A take out of the 1658-60 zone on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1284-5 zone on the S&P 500 would augur well for prices  early next week.

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.