The markets did get a follow-through and had a plus day today for the most part, but the more significant part about today was that intraday support held on several tests, enabling the markets to have a late afternoon rally and close near the high end of the day with gains on the session. The day started out with a sharp move off at the opening, testing initial resistance. They backed off in a 3-wave pullback right to key support, and then bounced mid-morning with a nice rally that took the NDX to new highs, but the S&P failed to do so. At that point they backed off again, retested, and made higher highs on the NDX and on the S&P, and then attempted another rally that failed at the declining tops lines, but pulled back once again and then late in the day came on sharply.

Net on the day the Dow was up more than 100 points, the S&P 500 up 6.39, and the Nasdaq 100 more than 21 1/2. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 0.79 today and weak for most of the session, but did come back about 5 points off the low during that late afternoon rally.

The technicals managed to surge to the positive side by 2 to 1 on New York but just 17 to 13 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 11 to 7 positive on New York and 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Total volume on New York was about just under 2 billion, and Nasdaq traded just about 2 Ã,½ billion.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. There were several outstanding gainers today, with SMDI on strong earnings jumping 1.92, closing at 13.04 on nearly 3 Ã,½ million.

Other point-plus gainers, Blue Phoenix (BPHX), one of our recent Charts of the Week, gained 1.94 on 1.7 million, a strong percentage gain. Jones Soda (JSDA) snapped back 1. Sigma Designs (SIGM) closed at its all-time closing high today at 33.51, up 1.03 on nearly 1 million shares traded, continuing to act extremely well and relatively strong in a weak market.

Other stocks of note today, Ceragon Networks (CRNT), one of our old Charts of the Week, was up 74 cents. Eschelon (ELON) was up 70 cents, Cree Inc. (CREE) up 86 cents, Dynamic Materials (BOOM) up 78 cents, and Immersion Corp. (IMMR) 88 cents. Research Frontiers (REFR), one of our portfolio positions, surged over 15 and closed at 15.18, up 51 cents, and Taser (TASR) had a very strong snapback from a very sharp early sell-off that got it down near 13, and closed just under 15, at 14.93, up 34 cents today.

On the downside, JA Solar (JASO) gave back 1.67, but the loss leader today was PRG Schultz, which we were stopped out on earlier in the week. It got hammered for 4 today, closing at 13.80.

Other losses of note, GigaBeam (GGBM) was down 54 cents, Excel Maritime (EXM) 44 cents, and ACH 33 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the key today was that support held, but the two-week declining tops line on Nasdaq 100 was tested and they backed off there late in the session. So, it's going to be very important and interesting to see if they can take that out tomorrow. Next resistance on the S&P that may be tested is around the 1485 zone, and that's key overhead resistance. If we do get a declining tops breakout on the NDX, the next key overhead resistance to look at is in the 1990-95 zone.

TheTechTrader.com is closed tomorrow, and we'll be back again on 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.