The markets had an up-day today on Wednesday.  They started out strong from the get-go with a gap-up, ran strongly in the morning right to resistance at the 1500 level on the Nasdaq 100 and the 1278 level on the S&P 500, and backed off, as would be expected, but in a consolidative nature. 

That triggered an additional sharp leg up, and the indices reached their session highs just around noon.  They consolidated for a couple hours, and then in mid-afternoon tried another rally that got right back up to the session highs but failed there, creating a double-top.  They sold off sharply from that level, taking out minor support but holding just beneath it, and bounced around at the end, backing and filling towards the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 74 at around 11,200, but still about 30 points off its earlier high.  The S&P 500 closed up 7.63 to 1278.75, and that was about 5 points off the session high.  The Nasdaq 100 closed just above 1500, up 15.55, but that was about 10 points off the earlier level.  So, as you can see, the indices gave back a chunk of what they gained earlier in the morning.  The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) ended up 4.28.

The technicals were positive by more than 2 to 1 on advance-declines on New York, and about 3 to 2 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was more than 2 to 1 positive on New York with more than 1.7 billion traded.  Nasdaq traded around the same amount and had a similar ratio, about 11 to 6.

TheTechTrader.com board was strong other than a couple issues.  On the plus side, POZN, a new stock we followed today, was up 2.95 on 8 3/4 million.  All Scripts Healthcare (MDRX), an old favorite of ours, jumped nearly 3 points on just short of 6 million shares. 

Other stocks of note, old favorite Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) was up 1.83, NVE Corp. (NVEC) up 1.04, Hansen Natural Corp. (HANS) up 1.09, and Apple Computer (AAPL) 98 cents.

On the downside, Rambus (RMBS), on an adverse court decision, fell 4.33 on 27 Ã,½ million shares, a large percentage loss there, and Baidu.com (BIDU) dropped to a threeââ,¬â€œmonth low before rallying slightly but still closed down more than 2 points today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the S&P 500 made a new two-month high, but fell short of the May snapback highs near 1290, getting as high as 1283 and change before backing off at the end of the day.

The S&P is in a resistance zone above 1280, but remains in a three-week rising bottoms and rising tops up-channel.  The NDX, meanwhile, is in a much more muted pattern but also in a similar configuration.  Despite the new highs on the S&P today, the NDX did not confirm, failed to take out the 1518 July 31 high and now the 1518-20 zone represents strong resistance.

Weââ,¬â"¢ll see if the indices can continue todayââ,¬â"¢s firming action or whether theyââ,¬â"¢re going to do some retesting. Right now itââ,¬â"¢s a tough call.

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.