It was another solid session for the indices, but the majority of the gains came in the first 30-45 minutes.  The indices gapped up, pulled back and then rallied sharply higher to new rally highs on the NDX, tested them on the S&P but didn't break out on the S&P until late in the day.  For the rest of the day the indices meandered in tight ranges, retesting support several times, and then in the last hour bumped back up to retest the highs on the NDX and make slightly new highs on the S&P, confirming the earlier NDX breakout.

Overall I would call it a solid consolidation day after the big run-up in the morning, and a healthy one.  The indices still look bullish, and the trend is your friend and the trend is still higher.  Until at least support gives way and they start to take out some prior lows, momentum is strong enough to keep the market moving higher, but they sure are long in the tooth at this point.

The Nasdaq 100 has now rallied from under 1400 to over 1550 since late April, a very strong thrust off of that low, which indicates that we are in the midst of a strong intermediate advance.

Net on the day the Dow was up around 80, the S&P up more than 7 1/2, the Nasdaq 100 up 16, and the SOX Index up almost 8 today, nearly 2 percent.  That surely helped Nasdaq today.

The technicals were very solid as advance/declines were by 22 1/2 to 10 positive on New York and about 21 to 9 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was very strong by about 3 1/2 to 1 on New York on total volume of about 1 1/4 billion. Nasdaq traded over 1.6 billion, with a nearly 4 1/2 to 1 positive plurality.

TheTechTrader.com board was solidly in the plus column.  The leader today was Cree (CREE), up 2.88 on 7.7 million shares on news of a $200 million contract with Samsung.  Parlux Fragrances (PARL) flew ahead by 1.32.  Forward Industries (FORD) hit a new all-time high and closed near it, up 88 cents today on nearly 1 million shares.  CryptoLogic (CRYP) was up nearly a point today.  Dynamic Materials (BOOM) was up another 81 cents today, and earlier in the session reached over 43, a new all-time high.

Air T (AIRT) was up 61 cents, aQuantive (AQNT) up 74 cents, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) snapped back 55 cents, Evergreen Solar (ESLR) up 29 cents, and Vasco Data Security (VDSI) to a new 4 1/2-year high was up 53 cents on over 1 million shares.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, as indicated earlier we are marching up the intermediate upchannel, with the Nasdaq still stronger than the S&P and Dow.  Over the last day or two the indices have tested support and held, have worked their way higher and may continue to do so until they break.

Support levels to watch are 1540 and 1525 on the NDX.  S&P support is at 1190 and then 1185.

TheTechTrader.com is closed tomorrow.  We'll see you on Tuesday.

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.