The indices had a very interesting session today. The bears had an opportunity to wrest control from the bulls, as yesterday’s steep decline was begging for a follow-through. They got one early, when the markets opened lower and went down sharply to new pullback lows. But with the NDX holding the 1788-90 support zone and the S&P holding the 1434 area, they had a very sharp reversal rally in the morning that lasted through mid-afternoon, when they did finally get some backing and filling and consolidation. However, towards the end of the day, the blue chips, in particular the S&P and Dow, surged to new session highs and closed at or very near the highs for the day going away, with the NDX trailing slightly because of a 4-day declining tops line resistance level around the 1814-15 area.

Net on the day the Dow was up 68, the S&P 500 about 9 and the Nasdaq 100 nearly 15 Ã,½, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) up 4.60.

The technicals confirmed the solid session today with a positive 2 to 1 ratio of advance-declines on the NYSE and on Nasdaq, with up/down volume positive by 2 Ã,½ to 1 on New York and by 3 to 1 on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was active and mostly higher, with several point-plus gainers today. Leading the way was Jones Soda (JSDA), snapping back sharply off the intermediate rising trendline yesterday morning and advancing 2.71 on 3.6 million shares today, closing near the highs for the day

DXP Enterprises (DXPE) was up 1.20, NVE Corp. (NVEC) 1.95, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) 1.14.

Other gainers of note, ENER gained 92 cents, recent Chart of the Week ELON was up 93 cents, and U.S Global Investors (GROW) gained 92 cents. Chindex (CHDX) surged past 20 for the first time in 2 months, up 49 cents to 20.31.

Among other issues, solar energy play Evergreen Solar (ESLR) was up 36 cents. Medialink (MDLK) snapped back over 5, closing up 37 cents, Nuance Communications (NUAN) 41 cents, O2Micro (OIIM), a recent Chart of the Week up 40 cents, closing over 10, and Rochester Medical (ROCM) tagged a new high today, up 54 cents. Radio Shack (RSH) was up 63 cents.

On the downside, just fractional losses across the board. Dendreon (DNDN) lost 22 cents on 46 million shares. It had a volatile day today, moving as low as 16.65 and as high as 19.37, before closing at 18.01.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the significance of today’s action was that despite the potential breakdown the indices held secondary support and bounced sharply, back above the moving averages on the hourly charts and closed not far off the earlier weekly high.

So we have some testing to do tomorrow morning, but they closed just a fraction under the weekly high on the S&P an a few points from it on the NDX. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

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.