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Stocks ended largely unchanged after crawling along the flatline for most of the session Monday, weighed by worries over demand for Apple's iPhone 5 and as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of a busy week of corporate earnings.
Investors also hesitated to jump in ahead of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's remarks at 4 pm ET, his first speech since the Fed's meeting minutes indicated that some policymakers wanted to end the bond buying program before year end.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 18.89 points, or 0.14 percent, to end at 13,507.32, led by Hewlett-Packard.
The S&P 500 erased 1.37 points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 1,470.68. The Nasdaq slipped 8.13 points, or 0.26 percent, to finish at 3,117.50. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, closed above 13.
Among key S&P sectors, health care rose, while telecoms slipped.
"The S&P is still having trouble taking out 1,474," wrote Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus. "If it does, it brings out all the technical wannabes. However, the fact remains that it will not be confirmed by the DJIA, Nasdaq Comp and the NDX. Thus, you should consider selective profit-taking and hedging now."
Dell surged more than 15 percent amid chatter that the computer hardware company is in talks with private equity firms over a potential buyout. However, Dell declined to comment to CNBC on what it called "rumors or speculation."
Apple?fell more than 3 percent to hover around $500 a share after Japan's Nikkei and the Wall Street Journal reported that the company cut orders for parts on its?iPhone 5?due to weak demand. Earlier, shares briefly dipped below $500, a level the company hasn't traded below since last February.?
(Read More:?Apple Trades Near $500 as Investors Dump Shares)
Shares of iPhone component makers also declined, including?Cirrus Logic?and?Qualcomm.
Meanwhile, UBS and several other firms noted that the report of order cuts at Apple appears to be old news from a notification to suppliers last month.
"We think it's old news," said Peter Misek, senior tech analyst at Jefferies. "[The iPhone 5] is selling well, but not as well as hoped?it's still the biggest-selling device of all time at 50 million units, but there were hopes that it would be better than that."
President Barack Obama warned Congress on Monday that?it must raise the debt ceiling?or risk a "self-inflicted wound on the economy." He threatened to take over authority for raising the borrowing limit if Republicans decline.
"We've got to stop lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis," Obama told reporters at the White House.
Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart said that the Federal Reserve's unconventional monetary policy has limits, and could pose a risk to "market functioning and financial stability." And San Francisco Fed President John Williams suggested that the rise of uncertainty is constraining economic activity.
Earlier, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans gave an?upbeat outlook for the economy?in 2013. Evans forecast the U.S. will grow by 2.5 percent in 2013 and 3.5 percent in 2014. The speech was his first since mid-2011 in which he did not make an explicit call for further monetary easing. Evans was less sanguine on unemployment however, forecasting a rate of 7.4 percent in 2013, easing slightly to 7 percent in 2014.
Fourth-quarter earnings will kick off in earnest later this week when most major banks including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America will report results.?
Among techs,?Hewlett-Packard?edged higher after after JPMorgan upgraded its rating on the tech stock to "neutral" from "underweight" and raised its price target to $21 from $15.
Cisco Systems?rose after R.W. Baird boosted the company to "outperform" from "neutral," saying the company is executing very well in a challenging macroeconomic environment.
And?Facebook?gained after Deutsche Bank lifted its rating on the social-networking giant to "buy" from "hold," saying mobile newsfeed ads are providing the company with more revenue momentum than any other firms the brokerage covers.
Meanwhile,?Research In Motion?soared ahead of the introduction of its BlackBerry 10 later this month. Shares have skyrocketed nearly 40 percent in the last three weeks.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/stocks-end-flat-apple-shares-drop-1B7953544
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