The market had another up session ahead of the Fed announcement tomorrow. The indices opened strong, backed and filled early in the morning, and then rallied steadily higher, reaching the highs for the day around mid-day. They had a fairly sharp afternoon pullback that held secondary support, retested it, and then they bounced back into the close, with the S&P actually making a nominal new session high before a slight pullback in the last 10 minutes brought them off the session highs. The same thing occurred with the Dow, which just fell short of reaching 12,300.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 61, the S&P 500 8.85, and the Nasdaq 100 9.02. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) gained 4.48. It was a solid up-session, confirmed by the technicals.

Advance-declines were positive 2 Ã,½ to 1 on New York and by 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little less than 3 to 1 positive on New York on light volume of just over 1.4 billion. Nasdaq traded about 1 2/3 billion, also with a little less than 3 to 1 positive plurality on up/down volume.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher, with some outstanding point-plus gainers today. Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) snapped back 1.82 on nearly 28 million shares on news of a financing. Chindex (CHDX) had a strong snapback session, gaining 1.12 today. NVE Corp.(NVEC) was up 1.18, Rambus (RMBS) 1.22, and Radio Shack (RSH) 1.03, reaching a new 18-month high today. Exide Technologies (XIDE) had a sharp move early in the day, but gave back some, still up 83 cents on the day on 1.8 million. Sigma Designs (SIGM) jumped 61 cents on over 800,000 shares, ahead of its earnings release tomorrow.

Other stocks of note on the plus side, Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD) was up 94 cents. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) 91 cents, and Hirsch International (HRSH) 99 cents, one of Nasdaq’s leading percentage gainers.

On the downside, DXP Enterprises (DXPE), despite being higher earlier in the morning, reversed and gave back 1.23 on the session. That was the only point-plus loser on my board today.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the Nasdaq 100 had an important breakout above resistance, then got up near strong secondary overhead resistance in the 1773-75 zone, but backed off, closing near 1767. The S&P 500 took out its declining tops lines, but failed to penetrate key lateral overhead resistance around the 1411 area, closing right near there. The 1410-15 zone has been key overhead resistance for the last few weeks, and despite today’s rally it still remains formidable resistance.

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.