The indices managed to eke out another gain today, but it was a very tedious day with the indices opening sharply lower, holding right there and then firming up the rest of the morning.  The market pulled back in early afternoon, held the intraday trendlines, and then moved slowly up the intraday channel, closing at the highs for the session on Nasdaq and near the highs on the S&P and Dow.

The key today was the SOX Index, up nearly 8 points, or almost 2 percent, and that really pushed Nasdaq and helped the major indices firm up.

In the morning that early decline held right at key moving averages on the hourly charts, as well as price support, and as a result the markets were able to rally the rest of the day, albeit unconvincingly.

The technicals today were decent, particularly on New York where advance-declines were 20 to 13 positive.  Nasdaq, however, was only 8 to 7 positive on advance-declines.  Up/down volume was about 3 to 2 positive on New York and a similar number on Nasdaq.  Total volume was just under 1.4 billion on New York, and about 1.7 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was active.  In particular, the two stars of the day were former “Charts of the Week” CryptoLogic (CRYP), which reached a new 5-year high, closing at 36, up 1.34 and JAMDAT Mobile (JMDT) up 1.75, also acting very well today.  Cree (CREE) closed near 30, up 88 cents.  Dynamic Materials (BOOM) snapped back 66 cents.  Medicore (MDKI) was up 45 cents, Parlux Fragrances (PARL) up 54 cents, and in the alternative energy sector Evergreen Solar (ESLR) was up 60 cents and DayStar Technologies (DSTI) up 35 cents.

In the larger-cap sector, Broadcom (BRCM) was up more than 1 today on heavy volume.  Intel (INTC) advanced 30 cents.  That really helped the SMH, which gained 50 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly index patterns, at the end of the day today they tested the 5-week rally highs on Nasdaq and closed right there, and a little bit below them on the S&P.  But the market certainly was resilient today and did not want to give up the gains, which it had every chance to do with a gap-down at the open.

So the market tested, held, closed strongly, and with tomorrow being Friday it's going to be interesting to see if they can extend these gains.  TheTechTrader.com is closed tomorrow as we are traveling.

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.