US stocks rebounded from early sharp losses but finished down Thursday
amid some earnings disappointments, while Apple jumped after it said it
was reviewing ways to return some of its $137 billion cash pile to
investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 42.47 points (0.30 percent) at 13,944.05.
The
S&P 500 index dropped 2.73 points (0.18 percent) to 1,509.39, while
the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 3.35 (0.11 percent) to 3,165.13.
Trade was lackluster amid some disappointing data showing productivity in the US economy fell in the fourth quarter.
Apple
shares added nearly 3 percent, shooting up in the last hour to $468.25,
after it issued a statement saying it has been "in active discussions
about returning additional cash to shareholders."
Earlier
Thursday, hedge fund Greenlight Capital launched an effort to press the
company to do more to unleash to shareholders the value of its huge
capital stockpile.
"Like many other shareholders, Greenlight is
dissatisfied with Apple's capital allocation strategy," Greenlight
founder David Einhorn wrote in a letter to Apple shareholders.
The
combination of Apple's low price-to-earnings ration and its $137
billion cash pile "supports Greenlight's contention that Apple has an
obligation to examine all options to create and unlock additional
value," Einhorn said.
Boeing shares added 1.5 percent despite US
transportation safety inspectors suggesting it could be several weeks
before they could conclude their probe of a battery fire that forced the
grounding of the global 787 fleet.
BlackBerry gained 5.7 percent after it said the launch of the new Z10 handset in Canada and Britain was very strong.
Akamai
Technologies sank 15.2 percent after the Internet technology firm
missed forecasts in quarterly revenue figures and gave a disappointing
outlook for the current quarter.
Credit card company Visa slipped
2.3 percent despite reporting better profits than expected and
announcing the authorization of a new share repurchase program.
Media
giant News Corp. lost 2.3 percent after it cut its profit forecasts
because of declining ratings for some of its television programs.
Sprint Nextel fell 0.5 percent after reporting a narrower loss than analysts expected.
Bond
prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 1.95 percent
from 1.97 percent late Wednesday, while the yield on the 30-year
Treasury dropped to 3.16 percent from 3.18 percent. Bond prices and
yields move inversely.