The indices had another positive session to finish the day with the Dow closing right at 14,000, the first time it's actually closed at that level.

The day started out strongly with a big gap up after IBM's earnings came out and futures were stronger pre-opening. A morning pullback was very orderly, and the markets held within an hour and started another rally try, with the NDX moving up steadily to new 7-year highs, tagging 2060. At that point the S&P failed to confirm and was having a difficult time even getting through the 1555-56 short term multi-session resistance level. Despite the fact that the NDX went to even higher highs later in the day, the S&P again failed to confirm a second time.

They did try an afternoon pullback that held support, and then they came back again to fall just short of the earlier highs and pulled back into the close.

Net on the day the Dow was up more than 82, the S&P up nearly 7, and the NDX more than 15. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 4 Ã,¼ today.

The technicals were positive by 5 to 3 on New York and 3 to 2 on Nasdaq on advance-declines. Up/down volume was 8 to 5 positive on New York and about 8 to 3 positive on Nasdaq.

Total volume was 1.47 billion on New York and about 2 Ã,¼ billion on Nasdaq.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly fractionally mixed, but there were some outstanding issues today. On very positive news of a major deal, Clearwire (CLWR) exploded for 8 Ã,½ points on 16 Ã,½ million shares, closing at 33.30.

Among other point-plus gainers today, the shipping group really rocked today. Excel Maritime (EXM), a recent Chart of the Week, was up 3.38 to 36.58 on more than 1 million shares. Euroseas (ESEA) at 16.91 was up 1.22.

Old favorite and portfolio position Taser (TASR) jumped 1.56 on more than 10 million shares, closing at 17.41, and PRG-Schultz International (PRGX), one of our old Charts of the Week, finally came alive after it blew through a 5-month resistance level, closing up 1.90 at 17.46.

Portfolio position STEC jumped past 17 and closed at 17.12, up 32 cents, Chart of the Week VSR was up 62 cents, and portfolio position Exide Technologies (XIDE) jumped a quarter.

Ascent Solar (ASTI) jumped 63 cents, closing at 9.95, and portfolio position EMC gained 47c, closing at 19.72. Our model portfolio had another good day today.

On the downside, the loss leader by far was NVE Corp. (NVEC), which got slam-dunked for 5.63, a very big percentage loss there on nearly 1 million shares. That was the only point-plus loser on our board today.

Portfolio position DG FastChannel (DGIT) lost 47 cents, and Jones Soda (JSDA) 41 cents. All other stocks that were down were only down very small fractions.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the NDX made new 7-year highs today, touching 2060 on a couple occasions before backing off. The S&P, however, failed to confirm and had a very difficult time for the last 6 sessions getting through the 1555 area.

Tomorrow is options expiration day. This will be our last Closing Boxer Brief until Monday.

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.