The New York Stock Exchange is trading in mixed order on Friday, as the recent "rally" that took the indices to new record highs is visibly running out of steam.

In late morning trading, the Dow Jones climbed 0.1% to 39,181.7 points, while the Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.1% to 17,717 points.

Investors are continuing to take profits on the major technology stocks, following their upward movement in recent weeks, which led them to set new all-time highs.

Among the US tech heavyweights, AI chipmaker Nvidia is suffering the most severe profit-taking, with a decline of over 2% on top of the 3% already lost yesterday.

The stock is still up more than 155% since the start of the year.

The decline of the tech giants may, however, be seen as a normal technical withdrawal, as part of the ongoing rotation of asset portfolios.

On the Dow, stocks such as Cisco (+1.7%) and Intel (+1.3%) - which had been largely neglected in recent months - are now among the index's strongest performers.

McDonald's (+2%) is also benefiting from a catch-up effect in view of the forthcoming launch in the US of its five-dollar menu, designed to boost sales among less affluent consumers.

The economic indicators published throughout the morning did not seem to have had any noticeable impact.

The S&P Global composite PMI index stood at 54.6 in flash estimate in June, compared with 54.5 in final data for the previous month, showing that production has now risen continuously for 17 months in a row.

The index of leading indicators, which is supposed to forecast economic activity, fell more sharply than expected in May, according to the Conference Board, which sees this as a sign of slowing growth.

The leading index fell by 0.5% last month, to 101.2, after declining by 0.6% in April, while economists were forecasting a more limited decline of around 0.3%.

On the bond front, the yield on ten-year Treasuries has risen to almost 4.27%, but is heading for a slight weekly decline.

The session could be marked by a degree of volatility on this day of the "four witches", marked by the expiry of numerous options and futures contracts on indices and equities.

For the week as a whole, the Dow Jones is currently up 1.5%, but the Nasdaq is virtually stable, a sign that the index needed a break after advancing for seven weeks out of eight.

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