It was a volatile session with eight separate swings up and down during the session. The best part of the day was the last 30 minutes when the market exploded off the lows late in the session and ran nearly vertical. The Dow went from flat to up 150 in the last half hour. The S&P 500 went from down 16 to up 10, and the Nasdaq 100 went from down 20 to up 13.

It was a very fast vertical move in the last half hour, fueled apparently by short-covering, that took the indices not only to afternoon highs but to session highs, closing at or very near the highs for the day.

The technicals, as usually happens with a late move, did not manage to get back into the plus column. Advance-declines were 3 to 2 negative on both exchanges. However, up/down volume did edge into plus territory, with the NYSE having about a 12 to 11 positive ratio, and Nasdaq 15 to 12. Total volume on New York was a hefty 2.4 billion. Nasdaq traded nearly 2 Ã,¾ billion today.

TheTechTrader.com board was mixed, but it was a wild day. The star of the day today was Force Protection (FRPT), which reacted to news of more government contracts for their type of vehicles. The stock jumped 1.90 on 5 million shares.

The other point-plus gainer was Dynamic Materials (BOOM), which recently announced excellent earnings and tagged a new all-time high. It had subsequently sold off, but today snapped back 1.58 on heavy volume.

Other stocks of note, CREE was strong all session, up 95 cents on the day. EMC up 58 cents, Euroseas (ESEA) up 53 cents, and Spectrum Control (SPEC) up 34 cents were standouts in our portfolio. FuelTek (FTEK) advanced 64 cents, but that was 2 points off the low in a very strong afternoon run. It was our Chart of the Day today. Sigma Designs (SIGM) snapped back more than 2 points off the morning lows, closing up 68 cents on the day on 1.4 million.

On the downside, JA Solar (JASO) dropped 1.01 in a weak solar energy sector. Ascent Solar (ASTI) broke 8, was stopped out, and closed at 7.67, down 58 cents today. Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) had a difficult session, down 2.06 today. Dryships (DRYS) fell 1.72 in a weak shipping sector, as was Excel Maritime (EXM), down 2.08 today.

Other stocks of note on the downside, Taser (TASR) gave back 68 cents, GigaBeam (GGBM) 41 cents, Local.com (LOCM) 85 cents, and Chindex (CHDX) 56 cents. Blue Phoenix (BPHX) also gave back 56 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had some wild swings today and although late in the session the S&P dipped to new pullback lows testing 1440, the NDX did not confirm that, holding at the earlier morning lows. That resulted in a turnaround rally that gained strong momentum & accelerated into the close.

We'll see if there will be any upside follow-through tomorrow, as the indices are approaching overhead resistance at the declining moving averages and lateral price resistance.

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.