The rally continued today to new multi-year highs on the SPX , new all-time highs on the Dow and 5-month highs on the NDX, but once again the gains were muted while support held all throughout the day.

The day started out with a rally in the morning.  They pulled back in late morning, continuing through the lunch hour and into early afternoon, at which point they peaked for the day and backed off but came on again in the last 45 minutes or so to close positive.

Net on the day, the Dow was up less than 13, the S&P 500 up 2 Ã,¾, and the NDX up 8.67, fueled by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), up another 4.42 today.

Technicals were positive by 3 to 2 on advance-declines on both exchanges.  Up/down volume was about 3 to 2 positive on New York, but about nearly 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq.  Total volume on the NYSE was more than more than 1.4 billion and Nasdaq was just under 2 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was very active.  The leader today was EZ Corp (EZPW), which gained more than 6 points today on 4 million shares, after a strong earningââ,¬â"¢s upside guidance.  Low-priced Lightpath (LPTH) was Nasdaqââ,¬â"¢s leading percentage gainer today, up 1.65 on 2.7 million, although that was about a point off the earlier high.

Other gainers of note, NVE Corp. (NVEC), one of our recent favorites, vaulted 3.38.  U.S. Global Investors (GROW) came back by 2 today, and Broadcom (BRCM) gained 1.

Among the fractional gainers, SVI on the Amex was up 89 cents, Qualcomm (QCOM) 90 cents, PW Eagle (PWEI) 94 cents, DXP Enterprises (DXPE) 80 cents, and CHNR 83 cents.

On the downside, Smith Micro (SMSI) gave back 43 cents, Versant (VSNT)  67 cents, Interphase (INPH) 63 cents, and Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) 34 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the rally continued throughout this week, closing near the highs for the week and the highs for the rally.  The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 closed near the top of the rising channels for the entire rally of the last 3 months, and although the market is extended, itââ,¬â"¢s not extensively overbought and probably will continue into early next week.

Until they reverse the rally the trend is your friend and the trend has not been broken yet.

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.