The markets had a very strong rally today, starting out from the get-go with a strong surge that lasted all morning.  The rally paused during lunch hour, but then resumed as the indices surged again until mid-afternoon, when they backed off to retest intraday support. They then accelerated lower in a last-hour sharp pullback that brought them substantially off the highs for the day.

But still, net on the day, the Dow was up 104.5, the S&P 500 12, the NASDAQ 100 25 1/4, and the SOX index more than 9 1/3.  Technicals were very positive, by 3 to 1 on advances-declines on New York and about 2.5 to 1 on NASDAQ.

Up/down volume was 13 to 3 positive on New York and about 9 to 1 positive on the NASDAQ.  It was an excellent day, technically, for the indices, as well as many stocks.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, just a couple of stocks on the downside.  But on the upside, leaders were Baidu.com (BIDU)up $5 1/4, and Medifast(MED), which had a steller day, reaching a new all-time high, up $2.59 on more than 2 million shares. TravelZoo (TZOO)was up $1.53.

Other stocks of note, the gold-tracking stock, GLD, was up $1.08, Broadcom (BRCM) $1.06, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) $1.14, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) up $1.11, and Micron Infrared (MIKR) up $1.01.

On the downside, only losses to speak of were Qiao Xing(XING), which continued its pullback from yesterday's sharp gain and was down $0.51, and PW Eagle(PWEI), which lost $0.29 today, performing relatively poorly.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall hourly chart patterns, the NASDAQ 100ââ,¬â"¢s six-week declining channel was broken, and then the thrust continued higher, taking out the neckline of a potential head-and-shoulders bottom pattern before pulling back to it at the end of the day.

The S&P 500, similarly, ran up to but did not break out across the declining tops line.  As a matter of fact, it stalled right there, along with the neckline of the head and shoulders pattern and pulled back at the end of the day.  So we'll see if we can get a follow-through, which will be key for this rally to have completed the bottoming patterns and initiate a new uptrend.  We'll see how that goes tomorrow.

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.