It was a monster rally for the markets.  The day started out with a huge gap-up. They pulled back very orderly, tested support successfully in the morning, and when that occurred the market took off for the rest of the day in a strong 5-wave move up that ended up closing near the highs for the day.

The Dow had its largest gain of the year, up 206 points today.  The S&P closed just under 1160, up 22 1/2.  The Nasdaq 100 up a whopping 40 1/2 with the Composite up nearly 49.

The SOX Index advanced more than 2 1/2 percent, up 10 3/4 today, which really helped Nasdaq move sharply higher.

The technicals were very strong and confirmed the advance, with advance-declines about 3 to 1 positive on both exchanges.  Up/down volume was even more impressive.  A total of 1.8 billion was traded on New York, with more than 1.5 billion of it to the upside, or about a 5 to 1 ratio.  Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion shares today, with 1.7 billion of it to the upside, a more than 6 to 1 positive ratio.

So, an extremely strong day technically as well.

TheTechTrader.com board had some amazing performances today.  Forward Industries (FORD) led the way with an excellent earnings report.  It exploded and ran 4 1/2 points on 5 3/4 million shares today, closing not far off the highs for the session.  Dynamic Materials (BOOM) also had a very strong session, snapping back 3 3/4 on 2 3/4 million shares today.

Other gainers of note, low-priced Day Star Technologies (DSTI) in the solar energy sector advanced 1.60 on positive news from the company.  CryptoLogic (CRYP) advanced 1.08.  TASR exploded on contract news from the UK, up 1.90 on extremely heavy volume.

Qlogic (QLGC) was up 1.08 and Broadcom (BRCM) 1.33.  That certainly helped the SHM, which was up 87 cents today.  The QQQQ advanced 92 cents.

Microsoft (MSFT) really helped the market today, as well, advancing nearly 1 point on 93 million shares.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the significance of today's action is that key short-term resistance at 1428-30 was taken out on the NDX, and it soared to secondary resistance just underneath 1450.  The S&P took out key resistance at around 1150 and proceeded another 10 points further, closing at 1160.

So, it was a very strong session and an excellent close for the markets.  Price and moving average resistance was taken out on the hourly charts, but key formidable overhead resistance lies ahead.  Levels we'll be watching are NDX resistance at 1460 and S&P resistance at around the 1165-68 zone.

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.