The markets had a strong start to the week on less-than-desirable overall volume. Nevertheless, it was an up-day with decent technicals.

The day started out with a surge to the upside and a quick pullback that held. The market made a nominal new high on the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) but failed to do so on the S&P 500, and the indices then sold off. However, they did so in an orderly manner, and just before noon made higher lows, which triggered a three-wave rally, interrupted by an early afternoon consolidation. But by mid-afternoon they thrust higher, took out 2-day resistance on the NDX and on the S&P 500, and rallied strongly to just underneath Friday’s session high and weekly highs. They then rolled over sharply but held initial support, and bounced into the close.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 42.3, the S&P 500 up 3 Ã,¾ and the Nasdaq 100 up 11.68. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 4.26.

The technicals were positive by 2 to 1 on advancing over declining issues on New York and 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up volume over down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York on total volume of 1.4 billion, but a little more than 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq on volume of a little over 1.6 billion.

TheTechTrader.com watchboard was mixed, mostly higher. There were some outstanding gainers. First Solar (FSLR) soared 5.85 on 2 Ã,½ million shares to new all-time highs, triggering a run in that group. Low-priced Ascent Solar (ASTI) was up 54 cents, Evergreen Solar (ESLR) 35 cents, and DayStar Technologies (DSTI) 28 cents.

Elsewhere, point-plus gainers were La Jolla Pharmaceuticals (LJPC), up 1.79 on more than 7 million shares, closing near the high end of the range, a very positive session there and a strong follow-up to Friday’s gain. Jones Soda (JMDA) also followed up on Friday’s strong session, adding another 1.54 on 4 Ã,½ million shares. Old favorite NVE Corp. (NVEC) at 27.80 was up 1.97 on nearly 600,000 shares, which is strong volume for that stock.

Other gainers of note, GigaMedia (GIGM) gained 58 cents, Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) 44 cents, and Qiao Xing Universal Telephone (XING) 33 cents.

In addition, the broker-dealer group had a very strong afternoon and experienced a nice retracement of their recent losses.

On the downside, there were just fractional losses on our board. Halozyme Therapeutics (HTI) gave back 39 cents, Mamma.com (MAMA) 31 cents, Fuel Tech (FTEK) 29 cents, and Chindex (CHDX) 36 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices held moving average support on the 60-minute charts and bounced nicely, closing with solid gains on the session but still beneath last week’s rally highs.

Key resistance remains as we indicated last week in the 1410-15 zone on the S&P 500, and up in the 1760-70 zone on the NDX, which could be tested tomorrow. We’ll see if that turns out to be formidable resistance or not.

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.