The markets followed upon yesterday's strong snapback with a phenomenal rally that literally never pulled back.  The worse we got today was a couple of periods where the indices marked time and flagged, but there was no pullback to take advantage of for the bears.

The indices closed near the highs for the day in a very strong session, with the Dow was up 147, the S&P 500 up 14, the Nasdaq 100 29 1/2 and the SOX up nearly 11 points, or 2 1/2 percent.

The 2-day rally off yesterday morning's lows is now 50 points on the Nasdaq 100 and about 30 on the S&P 500, a very strong performance and persistent rally as well. 

The technicals were very solid, with advance-declines positive by nearly 25 to 8 on New York and 22 to 8 on Nasdaq, the strongest performance seen in a while.  Total volume, however, was not exciting and certainly not as strong as one would think.  New York Stock Exchange volume was less than 1.5 billion, and Nasdaq volume was just a little more than 1.6 billion.

However, up/down volume was very strong, by about 4 to 1 on New York and nearly 6 to 1 on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board had some outstanding gainers.  World Poker Tour (WPTE), a stock we've been following for a while and had previously highlighted, was ahead by 8 3/4 on 10 million shares today on a takeover bid.

JAMDAT Mobile (JMDT) was up 3.25 to 30.42, near its 8-month highs and not far from its all-time highs.

Among other gainers, CryptoLogic (CRYP) was up 48 cents, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) up 81 cents on heavy volume, Medicore (MDKI) advanced 70 cents, and Universal Display Panel (PANL) up 88 cents, breaking out today.

In the large-cap sector, Intel (INTC) fought to get over 27 for most of the session, but did so late in the afternoon, closing at 27.28, up 72 cents.  The QQQQ was up 71 cents and the SMH up 58 cents, with QLogic (QLGC) up 69 cents.

Broadcom (BRCM) was the star of the day in the large-cap sector, up 1.20.

On the downside, Parlux Fragrances (PARL) was down 60 cents, Kendle International (KNDL) 47 cents, and Able Energy (ABLE) 35 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, key short-term resistance was taken out today at the 1513 area and the NDX never looked back, advancing another 20 points in the mid-day and afternoon part of the session.  However, late in the session the NDX did reach its 5-week declining tops line and backed off it slightly.

The S&P 500 broke through key short-term resistance at around the 1206 area and closed at nearly 1212 with the highs for the recent rally up in the 1216-20 zone to be contended with.

We'll be watching on Monday if the market can follow through or whether we get some early profit-taking, which I do expect, as the market is overextended short-term.

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.