We had some morning volatility followed by a very strong afternoon rally that led the indices to another strong gain today.  The day started out with a gap-up, but they quickly reached resistance, and then sold off very sharply to retest Fridayââ,¬â"¢s lows.  When Fridayââ,¬â"¢s lows held, they started a very strong rally.  The NDX moved from 1615 to 1654, or 39 points over the course of the next several hours.  The S&P rallied from 1312 to 1329, so a very strong session before both indices pulled back late in the session.

But the indices closed strongly with a gain of just under 68 points on the Dow.  The S&P 500 up more than 11 Ã,½, and the NDX 20 exactly.  The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was the story, pushing the NDX, with a gain of 11 Ã,¼, or 2 Ã,½ percent.

The technicals were solid by 11 to 5 on New York and 3 to 2 on Nasdaq.  But Up/down volume was the story today, 2 Ã,½ to 1 positive on New York on total volume of nearly 1 Ã,¾ billion.  Nasdaq traded more than 1.8 billion and had a 15 to 3 positive ratio, a very strong day on Nasdaq.

The leader of the day today was Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR), which came out with very positive drug news.  The stock gapped up large and ran 6.28 today, or 290%, on 23.4 million, a monster day there. 

There were several other strong stocks on my board today.  Low-priced Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (SPPI), also on positive drug news, jumped 1.59 on 6.6 million shares, and was up 46% today.

Other stocks of note, Baidu.com (BIDU) advanced 3.04, Apple Computer (AAPL) 2.75, Akamai (AKAM) 2.80, Broadcom (BRCM) 2.50, Rambus (RMBS) 1.37, NVIDIA (NVDA) 1.07, and Hansen Natural Corp. (HANS) 1.85.

PC Connection (PCCC), one of our Charts of the Week, advanced 89 cents.

On the downside, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) gave back 1.34 and PW Eagle (PWEI) 1.78.  They were definite laggards today in a strong market.

Other losses of note, NVE Corp. (NVEC) gave back 94 cents and Dynamic Materials Corp. (BOOM) lost 30 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after an important test was successful this morning, the indices rallied strongly in a 5-wave pattern, reaching nominal new 5 Ã,½-year highs on the S&P late in the session, before pulling back.

The NDX tested but pulled back off last Thursdayââ,¬â"¢s highs near 1654.  Itââ,¬â"¢s going to be important to get a follow-through because theyââ,¬â"¢re near key resistance levels here, and if they get a failure they could get a fairly sharp pullback.

But right now the trend is your friend, and momentum is still strong to the upside, and itââ,¬â"¢s going to be very interesting to see if this rally can continue or gets stopped in its tracks near here.

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.