The market had a very strong close and a very strong afternoon, bringing the indices to all-time, multi-year, and 2006 highs respectively on the Dow, S&P and NDX.

The day started out with a strong start but immediately sold off, and despite the fact that the S&P broke down below yesterday afternoonââ,¬â"¢s lows, he NDXdid not .After lunch the indices firmed up really started taking off. 

They closed near the highs for the day, with the Dow up 86 to 12,218, the S&P 500 up 8.80 to over 1393, and the Nasdaq 100 up 19 Ã,¼ to over 1787.  That was fueled by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX), which ran late in the afternoon and had a very strong session, up nearly 3%, or 13.27.

Advance-declines were very strong by 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq.  Up/down volume was 3 to 1 positive on New York on total volume of about 1.7 billion.  Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion with a 14 to 5 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed but generally positive, once again led by EFUT, which gapped up and exploded in the morning.  It managed to still close up 14.11 on the day on 14 million shares, which is approximately 14 times the companyââ,¬â"¢s float.  The stock had nearly 70,000 individual trades in one day!

Other stocks of note, ASEI went to a new multi-month high at 65.60, up 1.35.  Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) pushed back over 40, closing at 40.41, up 1.15.  Thinly traded ININ surged on heavy volume today, trading more than 1 Ã,¼ million, up 1.91 to a new 5 Ã,½-year high.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) reached a new all-time high today, near 23 at 22.89, up 83 cents.  HRT gained 70 cents to 19.70.  FNET released earnings and had a strong session, up 93 cents.  CTEC, one of our recent Charts of the Week, closed at 17.80  up 68 cents.   Broadcom (BRCM) to a  new 5-month high was up 1.77 today, and the SMH , fueled by the SOXX, was up 1.05.

On the downside, ISIS gave back 1.11, continuing its sell-off after yesterdayââ,¬â"¢s strong gap-up.  China Medical (CMED) despite strong earnings was downgraded by Goldman Sachs and the stock backed off 98 cents.  CTDC was off 87 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after a morning pullback, the indices held support and then ran strong for the rest of the session, closing near the highs for the day, week, year and multi-years in certain cases.  But the key to todayââ,¬â"¢s action was that the S&P finally confirmed the action by taking out multi-week highs in the 1389-90 closing at over 1393.

So, the trend is your friend, and the trend is still higher, and we have not broken and can continue higher at this point especially with confirmation from the S&P.

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.