Stocks finished nearly unchanged, giving Wall Street its first weekly drop for September. Tech stocks ended up putting in a mildly upbeat performance, with Oracle rising in the wake of its latest earnings, and Apple reaching a new high as the iPhone 5 made its debut. Oracle rose 0.65% a day after the co. reported fiscal first-quarter results that showed earnings rising, but revenue slipping from the same period a year ago; sales of software rose, but hardware revenue declined by 19% from last year’s first quarter. Apple rose 0.20% as the co.’s new iPhone 5 went on sale. Mobile carriers that offer the iPhone 5 also rose, with Verizon Communications rising 0.33%, AT&T adding 0.37%, and Sprint Nextel jumping 3.86%. Research In Motion slid 6.52% after the company said BlackBerry service suffered an outage in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This week investors will be looking for a possible bailout request from Spain and U.S. housing data, updates on GDP and consumer sentiment, as well as quarterly earnings results from home-builder Lennar and footwear and apparel retailer Nike.
