The markets had a very strong opening and some volatility in the morning. After the opening they came down, particularly sharply on the Nasdaq, but then had another strong rally in the morning that took us to the morning highs. They then backed and filled for most of the day in an upward rising flag pattern on the S&P and a sideways pennant/flag pattern on the NDX, and ended that way.

Net on the day, it was a mixed session, mostly to the upside. The SOX was down 1.04 today and that put pressure on Nasdaq, which was up less than 9 on the 100 and more than 12 on the Composite. The Dow, however, was the star today, up 107 1/2, closing at 10,940. That hit a new 2005 high, as did the S&P, which was up 11.65 to 1222.

The technicals were very impressive by 3 to 1 on New York but only 17 to 13 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was a little less than 3 to 1 positive on New York, with 1.55 billion traded. Nasdaq had a little more than 1 2/3 billion traded, with a 5 to 3 positive plurality.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but there were some outstanding gainers today. ABLE exploded, particularly in the last hour when it ran from 9 to 12.89, closing at 11.81, up 4.50 on the day, a monster gain for a low-priced stock.

CRYP gained 1.31, closing at a new multi-year high at 32.63. EVST exploded for 1.47, closing at 13.12.

Other stocks of note, MFLX was up 63 cents, NAVR 50 cents, and PRFT 64 cents. Those were the outstanding stocks on our board today.

On the downside, Broadcom led the chips mixed to lower. The SMH was up 8 cents today, but it was a very mixed session for the chip sector. BOOM went bust and gave back 1.40 of its recent gains.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, despite the fact that Nasdaq lags badly and is way below its 2005 high, a negative divergence, the pattern was bullish and positive. Early next week, I expect, is going to be a key point in the market to determine whether or not the short-tem direction can continue higher, or whether they're going to do some deeper retesting.

I would find it hard to believe the market can run too far without the Nasdaq and SMH participating.

Good trading!

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.