It was a very strong session, particularly for the blue chips, which ended the week on a very high note as the Dow and S&P 500 both closed at new multi-year highs.  The Nasdaq 100 continues to trail, but still had an up-session and held support on two tests intraday today.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 139, the S&P up 13 1/2, the Nasdaq 100 12.81, and the SOX Semiconductor Index up just 2.10.

But the technicals, particularly on New York, were very strong, with advance-declines positive by 3 to 1 on New York and a little less than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was about 4 to 1 positive on New York, with a total of about 1 2/3 billion traded.  Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion with a better than 2 to 1 positive plurality on advancing over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was very mixed, as we mostly trade Nasdaq stocks, and many of those were mixed to lower today.  The leading gainer on my board was an oil and gas stock, GMX Resources (GMXR), up 1.88.  Travelzoo (TZOO) advanced 38 cents, Fuel Tech (FTEK) up 64 cents and ACLS up 85 cents on 9 1/2 million shares.

Other stocks of note, Apple Computer (AAPL) advanced 76 cents on nearly 20 million.  51job Inc. (JOBS) gained 54 cents, and Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) 35 cents.

On the downside, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) gave back another 4 points earlier in the session, but rallied back 2 1/2 points and closed down 1.50.  That was the leading loser on our board today, as most other stocks were just fractionally lower if they were down at all.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, with multi-year highs on the S&P 500 and Dow, it certainly augurs well for prices, but the NDX still trails badly.  It hasn't even taken out its declining tops line and is at least 36 points away from its 2006 highs.

I'd like to see a confirmation from Nasdaq to validate the multi-year breakouts on the blue chip indices.

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.