The Dow Jones Industrial Average held a modest gain near midday Friday, helped by strength in Salesforce, which rose as much as 4.4%. Tesla, meanwhile, was a top gainer on the Nasdaq on news that General Motors, like Ford, will adopt Tesla's charging standard.
TSLA stock spiked more than 5%; GM shares gained around 2%.
DocuSign also outperformed in the early going, but shares reversed lower despite a strong earnings report and better-than-expected revenue guidance.
The Nasdaq composite was off highs but still rose 0.5%. Breadth was suspect again, with losers beating winners by about a 3-2 margin. The Invesco QQQ Trust picked up around 0.4%.
The S&P 500 reduced its gain to 0.2%, while the iShares Russell 2000 ETF slipped 0.7%. Declining stocks also had a slight edge over advancers on the NYSE.
The Nasdaq's distribution-day count currently stands at three, including Wednesday's 1.3% decline in higher volume. A stalling session on May 30 is also included in the count. The S&P 500 currently shows six distribution days, but five of those higher-volume declines showed losses of just 0.4% to 0.6%. Distribution days are worth following, but what's clear right now is that the stock market remains on a confirmed uptrend as leadership starts to broaden out.
Rising interest rates didn't bother technology stocks much. The 10-year Treasury yield picked up 3 basis points to around 3.74% as Wall Street eyes next week's Federal Reserve meeting.
As it stands now, federal fund futures traders think there's a pretty good chance that the Fed will leave rates unchanged at 5% to 5.25%, with only a 28% chance that rates will go up by another 25 basis points.
Inside the Dow Jones
Salesforce was the top performer in the Dow Jones average, up around 2% in strong volume. Salesforce stock is up 58% year to date, compared with a gain of nearly 12% for the enterprise software group.
UnitedHealth Group, Merck and IBM also outperformed in the blue-chip index.
Intel lagged badly in the Dow after shares rose 1.7% Thursday, closing just below a 32.29 handle entry.
Outside the Dow Jones, Adobe was up more than 5%, helped by a couple of price-target hikes ahead of next week's earnings report. Mizuho lifted ADBE's price target to 450 from 375, while Wells Fargo upgraded shares to overweight and raised ADBE's price target to 525.
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Adobe is featured in the latest Earnings Preview story. After flashing an early entry on May 25, Adobe cleared a long base Friday morning, moving above its mid-August high of 451.15.
On Holding gapped up, helped by positive comments from Jim Cramer on CNBC.
Growth Stocks On The Move
Several top-rated growth stocks continued their winning ways in the MarketSmith Growth 250. Netflix jumped 4% but pared gains. The Wall Street Journal reported that new data from streaming analytics company Antenna shows that Netflix's crackdown on password sharing has resulted in an influx of new subscribers.
Advanced Micro Devices, Symbotic and Global-e Online also moved well in the MarketSmith Growth 250.
Primoris Services is holding gains well after the stock cleared a cup-with-handle base earlier in the week with a 28.19 entry.
Inside the IBD 50, Norwegian Cruise Line continued its torrid ascent, rising another 2.5%. It's near the top of a cup base. But as the stock approaches its mid-February high, NCLH could try to add a handle to its current pattern. That would come in the form of an orderly, low-volume pullback. If a sound handle forms, it could pave the way for an upside breakout.
Follow Ken Shreve on Twitter @IBD_KShreve for more stock market analysis and insight.
