* ECB says bond-buy speculation is misleading
* Apple becomes most valuable company of all time
* Facebook shares briefly fall more than 50 pct from issue
price
* Indexes: Dow off 0.03 pct; S&P; flat; Nasdaq off 0.1 pct
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were flat on Monday
on signs of fatigue after a six-week run of gains as the
European Central Bank quelled speculation about the form of
market intervention that may be taken to stem the region’s debt
crisis.
Despite the lethargic trading, Apple Inc shares hit
a new high, becoming the most valuable public company of all
time, with the combined value of its shares exceeding a previous
record set by Microsoft. Shares closed up 2.6 percent to
$665.15.
The S&P; 500 remains close to a four-year high, rising nearly
5 percent in the past six weeks. Investors had been waiting for
the ECB to take steps to control the euro crisis in September.
Last week, the index broke away from the 1,400 level where it
had stalled for much of August.
German magazine Der Spiegel said over the weekend the ECB is
considering setting interest rate thresholds for any purchases
of a struggling euro zone country’s bonds. A bank spokesman said
it was misleading to report on decisions that still had not been
taken.
Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, also reiterated its
opposition to bond purchases. A spokesman for the German Finance
Ministry said it was not aware of any plans for the ECB to
target bond spreads.
The slight losses on U.S. exchanges compared with much
steeper declines in Europe and a fall in the Shanghai index to
its lowest level since 2009.
“Over there, the crisis is clearly much more real for them,”
said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New
York.
“For us, we are still sitting and waiting and people are
almost numb to the headlines now so they are not going to make
those quick reactions like they did – they are going to be much
more patient,” said Polcari.
Facebook Inc shares briefly fell more than 50 percent
from its issue price to hit a new low of $18.75.
The Dow Jones industrial average shed 3.48 points, or
0.03 percent, to 13,271.72. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
dipped 0.07 points, or 0.00 percent, to 1,418.09. The
Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.38 points, or 0.01
percent, to 3,076.21.
The healthcare sector was a bright spot after Aetna Inc
said it would buy Coventry Health Care Inc for
$5.6 billion. The Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index
climbed 1.6 percent.
Coventry shares jumped more than 20.3 percent to $42.04
after Aetna said it will pay $41.10 per share for the company,
putting the deal at about a 20 percent premium to the stock’s
Friday closing price. The deal is the latest in a string of
multibillion-dollar acquisitions in the U.S. healthcare sector.
Aetna shares rose 5.6 percent to $40.18.
Lowe’s Cos Inc slumped 5.8 percent to $26.26 after
the company reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results and
cut its profit outlook for the fiscal year as the world’s
second-largest home improvement chain lost market share to
larger rival Home Depot Inc.
Struggling retailer Best Buy Co Inc said its
founder, Richard Schulze, has turned down an offer from the
board to conduct due diligence in connection with his proposal
to take the company private at a valuation of more than $8
billion. The shares fell 7.9 percent to $18.67.
The global economic outlook is more uncertain now than at
the start of the financial crisis in late 2008, Doug Oberhelman,
chief executive of Caterpillar, the world’s largest
maker of construction equipment, said on Monday. Caterpillar’s
shares edged up 0.5 percent to $90.44.
Volume was weak in one of the lightest traded sessions of
the year with about 4.83 billion shares traded on the New York
Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, well below the daily
average of 6.64 billion.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by
1,680 to 1,267, while on the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers
1,432 to 999.
