It was another strong session, as the indices had a very good follow-up to yesterday afternoon’s rally. The day started off strong and was strong all morning. At mid-morning they consolidated and then moved steadily higher into mid-afternoon, at which point they finally did pull back and consolidate some of the gains, but held support.

Net on the day the Dow was up another 75 3/4 and closed at a new all-time high, just under 13,212. The S&P 500 was up 9.62, and closed just under 1496, right after making a new high at 1499, but was still about 29 points off the all-time high set back in 2000. The Nasdaq 100 was up 16.30 and closed near 1890, getting as high as 1894. That also failed to take out the recent previous rally high before backing off. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up another 4.28.

Technicals were very positive and confirmed the rally, with a 3 to 1 ratio of advance-declines on New York and 2 1/2 to 1 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was on New York was about 13 to 3 positive on about 1 2/3 billion traded. Nasdaq had a more than 4 to 1 positive ratio, on total volume of about 2.16 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher with quite a few point-plus gains. Leading the way was NVE Corp. (NVEC), up 1.80, but after the close it came out with earnings and is now trading another 4 points higher than that, up 5 ¾ on the day as we speak. A major breakout there!

Sigma Designs (SIGM) on an upgrade closed at 25.82, up 1.66 on nearly 1 ¼ million. FuelTek (FTEK) was up 1.12, and Dendreon (DNDN) up 1.03 on 18 ½ million were highlights today.

The solar energy stocks as a group were pretty strong, with Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) up 1.01, Evergreen Solar (ESLR) 43 cents, JA Solar (JASO) up 1.21, Solar Fun Power (SOLF) 62 cents and Ascent Solar (ASTI)up 57 cents.

Other stocks of note: portfolio position Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp. (NYMX) closed up 51 cents, and broke out to a new seven-year high. Jones Soda (JSDA) was up 78 cents, snapping back. Other biotechs of note, Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH) was up 45 cents and ISIS Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) up 30 cents and portfolio position Halozyme Therapeutics (HTI) was up 16 cents. Ceragon Networks (CRNT) advanced 38 cents and Chindex (CHDX) 52 cents.

On the downside, there were only small fractional losses to speak of, with the exception of IDM Pharma (IDMI), which gave back 59 cents in the biotech sector.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices thrust back up towards their old highs to retest and backed off of those late in the session. It remains to be seen if they can bust through, but right now the indices are on the verge of a test of multi-year highs, and it looks like they’re at an important inflection point here.

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.