Stocks flat at midday
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are flat at midday on Wall Street.
Just before the lunch hour, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 14 points at 12,781. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down a fraction of a point, and the Nasdaq composite index is off two.
Hewlett-Packard stock is down more than 10 percent after executives said a company that HP bought last year lied about its finances.
Energy stocks are also declining. The price of crude oil is down almost 2 percent as hopes rise for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
