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Stocks Mainly Higher As Nasdaq, Small Caps Make Record Highs; Will Alphabet's Breakout Fizzle?

Stocks closed higher Wednesday, with the Nasdaq composite and small caps reaffirming their leadership with record highs.

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The Nasdaq added 0.7%, climbing to a new high after two days in which the composite displayed composure by erasing all or most of its session losses. The Nasdaq now has a year-to-date gain of nearly 13%, rivaling the outstanding advance it had at the same time last year.

Two major Nasdaq components stood out: Alphabet (GOOGL) and Netflix (NFLX).

Netflix added nearly 3% to a new high. The video streaming company has reached a 20% gain from its breakout at 338.92 in four weeks. Alphabet, the parent of Google, rose past the 1197 entry of a new base, but the stock closed below the buy point. Still, Alphabet remains above the 1,161.20 buy point of a handle in its pattern.

The Russell 2000 made it four gains in a row and also made an all-time high. The small-cap bench mark rose 0.8%.

The S&P 500 added 0.2% and closed off session highs. The index gapped up at the open and filled that gap before resuming its advance.

The Dow Jones industrial average struggled, down 0.2% on the day. The majority of Dow components fell despite broad strength in the market, although no single component fell more than 2.5%. The Dow is trying to hold above its 50-day moving average, where it rebounded in late May.

Volume rose on the Nasdaq and fell on the NYSE, according to preliminary figures. Advancers led decliners by 8-to-5 on the NYSE and by 9-to-5 on the Nasdaq.

Drugstores were one of Wednesday's top industry groups, thanks to a 5% surge for Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). The retailer late Tuesday was named to replace General Electric (GE) in the Dow 30. GE shares, depressed for months, fell less than 1%.

Energy shares also led, after the price of U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $65.70 a barrel. Oil prices have been searching for direction in the past several days, ahead of a meeting of major oil producing countries on output targets.

In other stocks of note Wednesday, Western Union (WU) broke out of a cup-with-handle base with a 21.27 buy point.

TPI Composites (TPIC) soared above the 28.24 buy point of a base-on-base pattern in big volume. UBS raised the target price to 31 from 23 and upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. The relative strength line made a new high as well. TPI makes blades for wind-power turbines.

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