The markets had a very strong move today, particularly late in the afternoon when a mid-day consolidation proved bullish, and they exploded, pushing steadily higher all afternoon and closing near the highs for the day going away.

The day started out with a gap up, and then a morning consolidation that held, and that was followed by a nice pop in the morning to what at that point was the session highs. An orderly pullback took a couple hours to work itself out, but when they failed to follow through to the downside the indices soared to the upside, with the Dow up more than 247, the S&P 500 up 31 Ã,½ and the Nasdaq 55 Ã,½. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX)was up 13 Ã,¼ and the OEX was up 14.

Advance-declines were terrific, by 28 to 5 positive on New York. Up/down volume was 20 to 1 positive on New York on 1 1/3 billion traded. Nasdaq advaqnce/declines were 23 to 7 positive & volume was nearly 10 to 1 positive, on a total of 1 2/3 billion.

TheTechTrader.com board, as you can imagine, was mostly higher. One of the exceptions was VMWare (VMW), which had been smoking since its IPO, but surprisingly was down 1.58 today after being up almost 2 Ã,½ this morning.

The stars of the day on the plus side were DryShips (DRYS) again, up 5.42, and Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) again, up 5.47.

Other point-plus gainers were China Medical Technologies (CMED) up 2.10, JA Solar (JASO) up 2.96, and LDK, a new one we're following in the solar energy field, up 2.02.

The other star of the day today, particularly in the aftermarket, was Sigma Designs (SIGM), which closed up 1.38 at 38.63. However, blowout earnings came out and the stock is flying in the aftermarket, trading over 43 +$6 !!

Other stocks of note, point-plus gainers included Eschelon Corp. (ELON) up 1.65, Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) up 1.37, and Semtech (SMTC) up 1.67 on strong earnings.

In the low-priced sector Superconductor Technologies (SCON) had another very strong session, up 1 Ã,½ on 15 million shares. IGTE gained 75 cents, and Blue Phoenix (BPHX) 94 cents toady, snapped back over 15. The SMH was up 1.0 and the QQQQ up 1.34 -- it as was a stellar day on Wall Street.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices after a very sharp 1-day decline recovered nearly all their losses from yesterday in tremendous back-to-back loss and gains that we haven't seen in quite a while. Talk about volatility!

So we'll see if they can move back up against clear overhead resistance, which right now is up near 1960 in the Nasdaq 100 and in the 1475-80 zone on the S&P, which we're a bit away from yet. With the Nasdaq 100 leading here and the semiconductor group pushing higher, the market could very well squeeze the shorts further and extend this rally.

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.