Stocks turned mostly up as investors looked for hopeful signals from Europe in dealing with a possible Greek departure from the euro. Also, the World Bank cut its growth estimates for growth in the Asia-Pacific region, including China. It now forecasts a growth of 7.6% this year -- down from 8.2% in 2011, and 10% as recently as 2010. Sales of new homes rose 3.3% in April, while the Federal Housing Finance Agency said home prices rose 1.8% in March. Tech stocks bounced back to gains, offsetting a sell-off in the PC sector led by Dell. Hewlett-Packard lost 3.2% after Dell slid 17% on disappointing revenue forecast and profit below expectations. One of the day’s notable gainers was Facebook, which managed to rise 3.23% after two days of loss. HP advanced late Wednesday as the co. released better-than-expected quarterly results and said it will cut 8% of its workforce, will result in annualized savings between $3 billion and $3.5 billion by the end of its 2014 fiscal year. NetApp skidded 19% lower after the co.’s forecast came in below expectations. Implied volatility inched lower on moderate trading volumes.
