The markets had an up-day but it was more of a consolidation-type session, consolidating yesterday’s late sharp rally. The rally did spillover into the early part of the day, but they reached their session highs in the first hour, and the rest of the day was spent moving back and forth, although we did have a mid-afternoon dip that took us under first line of support. That did not have any downside follow-through, and as a result they snapped back. In the last 1-1 Ã,½ hours, they moved pretty much in a very tight, sideways narrow range.

Net on the day, they closed up 26 Ã,¼ on the Dow, more than 5 on the S&P 500, about 1 Ã,¾ on the Nasdaq 100, and just 0.62 on the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX).

The technicals, however, were positive with advance/ declines ahead by 2 Ã,½ to 1 on New York about 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume also was about 2 Ã,½ to 1 positive on New York on lighter volume of under 1.5 billion. Nasdaq traded a little less than 1 2/3 billion, and had about a 9 to 7 positive plurality on up/down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed but mostly higher, led today by Accredited Home Lenders(LEND), which snapped back from VERY heavy recent losses, gapping at the opening, and then running from 7.10 to 11 Ã,½ throughout the morning session, and reversed mid-day, giving back $2 of its gains. It was still up $3.39 on, on more than 75 Ã,½ million shares, 3 times the outstanding float.

Also on the plus side, brokers had a comeback session today. Bear Stearns was up 3.21, LEH 1.31, and MS 1.08. CAL advanced 98 cents.

Other stocks of note, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) was up 1.54 on positive news, Fuel Tech (FTEK) 1.12, RSH snapped back 69 cents, Nuance Communications (NUAN) 67 cents.

On the downside, ASTI ran hard in the morning, hitting a new high of 9.43, but closed at 7.99, down 80 cents on a reversal session with 4 Ã,½ million shares traded.

Following the decline in oil prices, the US Oil Trust (USO) dropped 47 cents. La Jolla Pharmaceuticals (LJPC)was off 51 cents today, giving back some of its recent sharp gains.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices consolidated for most of the session after its morning gains, ended up positive on the session, holding above the moving averages on the hourly charts on Nasdaq but just beneath them on the S&P. So we have a mixed pattern here, but the fact that they didn’t give it back today is a positive.

Let’s see if they can follow-through tomorrow -- although tomorrow is options expiration, and a rally extension may be postponed until early next week.

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.