Stocks ended slightly higher after mixed economic data and before major earnings releases, while f urther losses for Apple weighed on the tech sector. U.S. retail sales rose 0.5% in December, led by an improvement in auto sales. Retail sales modestly beat expectations. A gauge of manufacturing activity in the New York region was negative for the sixth straight month in January. Business inventories for November increased 0.3% slightly more than analysts had forecast. Trading volumes have been extremely low this week. Apple lost 3.15% after Nomura Equity Research cut its December quarter iPhone sales estimates to 48 million from 50 million. Facebook shed 2.74% after the co. unveiled its new “graph search” function at an event at its Silicon Valley headquarters. Dell extended previous gains and added 7.16% on the report that the co. is in talks with two private-equity firms about going private. Research In Motion lost 3.14% despite the recent upgrade to a buy rating from underperform by Charter Equity.
