It was a volatile day and a wild one, particularly in the last 1 Ã,½-2 hours when the indices had some real gyrations. Early on they gapped up strongly on strong pre-market futures. They had a strong run right after that into the early morning highs around mid-morning, pulled back into lunch hour in a very bullish-looking consolidation, and then ran steadily higher for the next couple hours to reach 1995 NDX and 1504 SPX, before a very sharp sell-off late in the afternoon took them down quickly, with the NDX giving up 26 points and the SPX 27 points.

But in the last half hour, after testing secondary support, they exploded sharply to the upside again in what appeared to be fed by late short covering.

The Dow, after giving up its entire 190-plus point gain earlier, snapped back to close up 153. The S&P 500 snapped back about 17 points and closed up 20 3/4, and the Nasdaq 100 jumped 19 points as well to close up 25.70 on the day. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was up 12, or 2 Ã,½ percent, and fueled The NDX run today.

The technicals were extremely strong by Nearly 2 Ã,½ to 1 on advance-declines on New York and a little less than that on Nasdaq.

Up/down volume, however, was the story. Heavy volume traded today, some 2.7 million on New York with about a 3 to 1 positive ratio. Nasdaq was where the story was, with a VERY heavy 3 Ã,½ billion shares traded with a better than 3 to 1 positive ratio of advancing volume over declining volume.

TheTechTrader.com board had one of its best days ever, with many multiple-point gainers. Leading the way was Hansen Natural Corp. (HANS), which gained 5.34, although that was some 3 points higher earlier in the day.

FuelTek (FTEK) jumped 4.08. Dynamic Materials (BOOM) advanced 4.57 to a new all-time high. Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) gained 2.81. DryShips (DRYS) rose 3.27. Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) exploded for 3.37. LSB Industries (LXU), one of our past Charts of the Week, came out with great earnings and the stock jumped 3.60, a big percentage gain there.

Other multiple point-plus gainers included Sigma Designs (SIGM), up 2.11 to a new all-time high, reaching just under 35. NVE Corp. (NVEC) jumped 2.20, Eschelon Corp. (ELON) another 2.02, Taser (TASR) 1.11, Global Solutions (GSOL) 1.17, and China Medical Technologies (CMED) 1.30.

There were some losses on the downside. Shipping stocks other than DryShips had a difficult day, with Excel Maritime (EXM) down 94 cents and Euroseas (ESEA) off 45 cents.

STEC Inc. (STEC) dropped 76 cents, Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 76 cents as well and Immersion Corp. (IMMR) 82 cents.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, obviously a strong follow-through to yesterday's late spurt after the FOMC announcement was interrupted by a late afternoon sharp sell-off, but the indices came back with abandon in the last half hour to put them solidly in the plus column.

Today's highs at 1995 NDX and 1504 S&P will be carefully monitored as they now represent key overhead 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.