Stocks ended flat, after turning sharply lower during the final hour of trading amid fears about Greece. Reports surfaced that former Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos told Dow Jones Newswires that Greece is considering making preparations to leave the eurozone. Also, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales rose 3.4% in April to an annual rate of 4.62 million, up 10% year-over-year. The OECD cut its forecasts for the eurozone economy to a decline of 0.1% this year, and warned that sovereign debt problems pose a risk to the global economic recovery. Banks were among the biggest gainers, with JPMorgan rising almost 5%. Tech stocks closed in the red, with Facebook plunging 8.9%. Among leading tech stocks, losses came from Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard and International Business Machines. Dell dropped more than 10% in the evening trade after the co.’s quarterly results and outlook missed analysts’ expectations. Morgan Stanley declined 0.5% after a securities regulators issued a subpoena to the company related to Facebook Inc.’s initial public offering. Implied volatility inched higher on modest trading volumes.
