The market put on a good show today, but the majority of the gains were right at the opening gap and then follow-through push. For the rest of the session, especially the morning session, the market moved sideways in a flag-type fashion.

Right about at the lunch hour, the market took another jump and went to new session highs, but just nominally on the NDX and by a couple points on the S&P. They then pulled back & continued consolidating in the afternoon. When no breakout materialized they broke minor intraday support and got a very severe test of the morning lows, but they did hold and then snapped back strongly in the last half hour to close back up near the highs on the S&P 500 and not too far beneath them on the Nasdaq 100.

Net on the day the Dow was up 63, the S&P around 10, the Nasdaq 100 20, and the Composite 26 1/2. The SOX Index was up more than 1 percent, or 4 1/2 points.

The technicals were excellent today, with advance-declines 25 1/2 to 7 1/2 on New York and 22 1/2 to a little less than 9 on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was very strong, although volume was a little lower on Nasdaq today. Total volume there was about 1.7 billion with about 1.4 billion to the upside, or about a 4 1/2 to 1 positive ratio. NYSE volume was better than 5 to 1 up with 1.3 billion to the upside out of a total of about 1.55 billion.

So a very solid day technically.

TheTechTrader.com board today was stellar with all but two stocks up. The gainer by far was Air T (AIRT), which gapped up, pulled back 1 1/2 points, but then came on strong to soar past 19, closing at 19.02 ,+$2.90, on 5.6 million. In just two days AIRT has moved up more than 50 %,from 12 1/2 to over 19!! Looks like a short squeeze is going on, perhaps.

Dynamic Materials (BOOM) went boom today, up 1.91 and breaking out of its downtrend. Travelzoo (TZOO) was up 1.84, and Ionatron (IOTN), a new stock we looked at today, was up 1.03.

Other stocks of note, Click Commerce (CKCM) was up 70 cents, CryptoLogic (CRYP) up 53 cents, Blue Coat Systems (BCSI) up 50 cents, Forward Industries (FORD) up 53 cents and World Poker Tour (WPTE) up 73 cents today.

On the downside, Spectralink (SLNK), though up in the morning, gave it all back and then some, down 44 cents on the day. Magma Design (LAVA) was down 24 cents, along with Delcath (DCTH) down 31 cents after a big reversal.

Stepping back and reviewing the overall patterns, the indices managed to hold a severe afternoon test, which leaves them right at their 4-week declining tops line and top of the down-channel they've had since the beginning of January.

A very key test is going to be taking place tomorrow morning. If they can break through, they can get a much stronger rally, but it'll be key that they hold today's pullback lows around the 1513 area on the Nasdaq 100, and about 1177 1/2 area on the S&P.

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.