Tech stocks are the stars, but indexes stay flat

Apple shares rose after the blog AllThingsD said the company would release the latest version of the iPhone Sept. 10. The climb helped make tech stocks the leading gainers in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.Still, those gains weren't enough to push the broad-market index up for the day. The S&P fell 1.95 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 1,689.47. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 5.83 points, or less than 0.1 percent, at 15,419.68.Stocks had opened lower after logging their biggest weekly loss in almost two months. By late morning, the losses had been pared, and the S&P and Dow remained marginally lower throughout the day.Apple rose $12.91, or 2.8 percent, to $467.30. The company makes up 7.9 percent of the Nasdaq composite, and its advance pushed the index up 9.84 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,669.95.Newmont Mining was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500 after the prices of gold and silver advanced. Gold rose for a fourth day on reports of increased demand from China. Silver gained the most in three weeks.Stocks have been treading water this month as companies finish reporting earnings for the second quarter and investors consider when the Federal Reserve will start to ease its economic stimulus. The U.S. central bank is buying $85 billion in bonds a month to keep long-term interest rates low. Many analysts expect that it will start reducing those purchases as soon as next month.

A tepid August has followed big stock gains in July, when the S&P 500 rose 5 percent, its best month since January. Stocks climbed last month after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke reassured investors that it would only ease back on bond-buying once the economy is strong enough to handle it.Any pullback in stocks now is presenting investors with a buying opportunity, said Doug Cote, chief market strategist with ING U.S. Investment Management."There will be some near-term volatility, but it's a . . . chance to get fully invested in the market," Cote said.BlackBerry gained $1.02, or 10.5 percent, to $10.78.Krispy Kreme rose $1.12, or 5.2 percent, to $22.52 after the stock was upgraded by an analyst at Janney Capital Markets on the expectation that the company will have stronger sales growth than expected.Vical plunged $2.05, or 57 percent, to $1.53 after the drug developer said its potential cancer treatment failed in a late-stage study, and that it would shift its focus to infectious-disease vaccines.

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