The market had a strange session, but it certainly closed to the positive side price-wise and on heavy volume, however underlying technicals did not support it.  The day started out with futures being lower before the opening, and the market opened sharply lower.  It immediately reversed on comments from Fed President Bernanke of the potential stoppage of interest rate hikes.  After a very sharp pullback and retest, the markets took off on a stronger secondary rally.  The morning rally took the Nasdaq 100 from 1688 to 1727 before a profit-taking pullback period occurred that was successful in retesting.  They rallied strongly with about an hour to go, but failed to take out the highs, rolled over and retested into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was up 28, the S&P 500 up 4.31 and the Nasdaq 100 up nearly 15.  The SOX Index was up 6.67, and certainly helped Nasdaq.

The technicals did not confirm the advance today, and were rather flat, with 18 more issues actually declining on New York and about 280 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was nearly dead-even flat on New York with more than 2 billion traded, and about 8 to 5 positive on Nasdaq with very heavy volume of nearly 2.6 billion traded.

TheTechTrader.com board was extremely mixed and there were some big gainers as well as losers.  On the plus side, InterDigital (IDCC) late in the session announced a huge settlement from Nokia of more than 1/4 billion dollars, and the stock exploded, running from just over 22 to over 29, or 7 points, in about an hour.  It did give back a couple points but closed up 4.56 on the day on 6.4 million.

Among other BIG winners, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) on tremendous earnings vaulted 3.79 on 1/2 million shares.  NetGear (NTGR) on strong earnings as well was up 2.45 on more than 5 1/3 million.  51job Inc. (JOBS) advanced 2.56 on more than 1/2 million shares, breaking out of a 4-day flag pattern.

Electro-Sensors (ELSE) snapped back 73 cents, Avici Systems (AVCI) was up 41 cents, and Broadcom (BRCM) in the large-cap sector advanced 1.45.

On the downside, Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) reversed sharply lower after its earnings report and dropped 5.79 on more than 2 million shares today.  Rediff.com India (REDF) got smacked under 20, closing at 19, down 1.41.

Travelzoo (TZOO)  gave up another 2.88 today on nearly 3 million shares, closing just over 38 1/2.  That one is now down nearly 15 points from its high three days ago.

Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) gave back 97 cents, Smith Micro (SMSI) 88 cents, Evergreen Solar (ESLR) 46 cents, Fuel Tech (FTEK) 77 cents and Eclipsys (ECLP) 85 cents.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) in the alternative energy group lost 1.17.

So it was a very mixed day today, a flat session for the technicals but positive session price-wise.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, what occurred today was positive technically in that it broke out above key 3-day resistance and declining tops lines and managed to consolidate nicely over the last several hours without breaking down.  That augurs for the future direction of prices to upside, but we better see some better technicals.  We certainly got strong volume, though.

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.