If you didn't already know that it was earnings season, it should be increasingly obvious. The angst in the market has caused stocks to stay close to home over the last two days, with roughly half of blue-chip companies trading trading higher and the other half lower. As of 2:45 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.67%) is up a nominal four points.
The biggest stories in the market today all involve technology stocks. Shares of Apple (AAPL 0.51%) continue their descent following rumors that sales of its latest iPhone may be waning. The rumors stem for a weekend story in The Wall Street Journal reporting that the company has "cut its orders for components for the iPhone 5 due to weaker-than-expected demand." To read more about this and learn why the concerns may be overstated, check out technology analyst Evan Niu's take on it.
Shares of Facebook (META 0.14%) are also lower today despite a much-anticipated announcement from the social-networking giant. As I write, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on stage presenting the company's new search functionality at an event in Palo Alto, Calif. According to reports, the new service gives users the ability to search their social connections for relevant information. Despite the fanfare, however, Facebook's stock is nevertheless suffering on concerns about how this will boost its profitability.
And finally, shares of PC maker Dell (DELL.DL) are sharply higher for the second day in a row. It was reported yesterday that two private-equity firms are in talks to take the company private. With Dell's market cap at more than $20 billion, the deal would be among the largest private-equity deals in history. It's for this reason that analysts see the deal as a stretch.
