By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Salesforce.com shares jumped Friday, a day after the business software company blew past Wall Street estimates, but the tech sector was weighed down by sliding shares of Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard.

The tech sector also joined a broader market selloff on worries about a possible U.S. strike against Syria.

But Salesforce (CRM) jumped 12.6% to close at $49.13 after the San Francisco-based provider of cloud-based business applications also put out a stronger-than-anticipated outlook.

"The force is still strong with this one," Credit Suisse analyst Phil Winslow quipped in a note raising his price target to $60 from $52.50.

Salesforce "remains by a wide margin thefastest-growingg company of its size," Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Davis said in a note.

"With the addition of marketing automation functionality and still nascent adoption of its platform capabilities, we believe Salesforce should be able to keep its impressive growth trajectory relatively intact for at least the next six to eight quarters," he wrote.

Shares of Splunk Inc. (SPLK) jumped 12.9% to close at $55.21. On Thursday, the data analysis company raised its revenue outlook.

FBR Capital analyst Daniel Ives raised the stock's rating to outperform from market perform, citing "increased confidence in the business as we believe the company's strong product cycle, healthy secular trends, and a ramping sales force will translate into larger deal sizes over the coming years."

But despite the Salesforce and Splunk rallies, technology stocks were mostly lower as Microsoft (MSFT) and H-P (HPQ) each slipped.

H-P fell 0.8% to close at $22.34, while Microsoft was down 0.5% to close at $33.40.

On Thursday, IDC pointed to signs that PC sales are now also slowing in emerging markets, which had been a bright spot for the struggling industry.

Shares of OmniVison Technologies (OVTI) were also down 16.1% to close at $15.45 after the chip company reported a disappointing forecast.

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) shed 0.8% to close at 3,590. The benchmark ended the week down 1.9%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was off 0.9%, while the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) shed 0.2%.

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