The indices had a strong close to the week, other than the semiconductor stocks, and Nasdaq despite that managed to have a strong afternoon, which helped all the indices run late in the session and closed near the highs for the week going away. Although the day did start out with a move down and a sharp one, they held support, and when that occurred they rallied back. But the NDX had problems all day getting through 1810, while the S&P and Dow kept making higher highs. When 1810 level was finally broken, the NDX took a sharp move up and played catch-up.

Net on the Day, the Dow was up 59, closing up over 12,600, at 12,612. The S&P 500 was up more than 5 at nearly 1453. The NDX was up just 3.36, but 15 points off the lows. That was despite the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) being down 3.44 on the day.

Advance-declines were positive but by just 3 to 2 on both exchanges. Up/down volume was also positive by a little less than 2 to 1 on both exchanges. Volume was 1.4 billion on New York, and just under 1.8 billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was higher, led today by yesterday’s Chart of the Day, JSDA, up another 2.51 on 6.2 million shares today, getting as high as 28.41, near our trading target.

Low-priced biotech DYAX jumped nearly 2 points today on 46 Ã,½ million shares on positive drug news. Chindex (CHDX), which has been coming back strongly from an intermediate decline, closed just under 22 at 1.64 today. That stock was under 15 a couple weeks ago.

Other stocks of note on the plus side, Cleveland Bio (CVLI) was up 89 cents. Among our portfolio positions, Ascent Solar (ASTI) was up 66 cents to 10 Ã,½. Research Frontiers (REFR) was up 61 cents, and Force Protection (FRPT) up 37 cents to a new 2-month high.

On the downside, there were just fractional losses other than Dendreon (DNDN), which had a late sell-off and closed down 76 cents at 17 Ã,¼.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices continued to come back from Wednesday and Thursday morning’s losses by rallying back and following through this afternoon to close, as indicated, near the highs for the week, and not far off the early April highs around the 1819-20 zone on the NDX. They got as high as 1842 today, so they’re bubbling under on the NDX and at new 2—month highs on the S&P, and approaching the yearly high at the 1462 area. They’re just 10 points off of that, so we’ll see if they can challenge that 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.