Stocks posted modest gains after earnings from Time Warner, Wyndham Worldwide, Ralph Lauren and others reinforced a theme of steady improvement for consumer companies. Zynga and BlackBerry posted gains, but the tech sector was weighed down by losses from Expedia, which slid 2.7% after RBC Capital cut its rating on the stock to sector perform. Apple slid 0.1% after the co. announced that downloads of songs from its iTunes store has crossed the 25 billion mark. Hewlett-Packard ended up 0.5% after a media report said that H-P’s board is studying a breakup of the company. In the evening trade Green Mountain Coffee Rosters, Yelp and Akamai Technologies tumbled after the companies reported earnings.
