Stocks fade in late afternoon trading

Updated: 7:03 p.m. ET.

The stocks tried -- but failed -- to finish higher for a second day in a row for the first time since the end of April.

In fact, a 71-point gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) faded to a small loss. The cause apparently was a comment by former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos that the his country is considering leaving the euro.

At the same time, Facebook (FB) shares fell $2.91 to $31.12 as the Facebook IPO debacle continues. The stock was off 23 cents to $30.76 after hours. The stock has now dropped 18% from $38 -- where it was originally priced after Thursday's close. The shares have been battered by problems Friday in getting trades executed and reports Monday and today that analysts at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs had cut their earnings estimates on the stock before the stock was actually priced.

The market briefly gained some traction from the April existing-home sales report, which showed sales rising 3.4% from March on a seasonally adjusted basis and 10% from a year ago. The report also showed that distressed sales -- foreclosures or short sales -- were starting to drop. And some markets were tightening, including Washington, D.C.; Naples, Fla.; Orange County, Calif.; and Seattle. 

The Dow closed down 2 points to 12,503. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) was up 1 point to 1,317. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) dropped 8 points to 2,839.

The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX), heavily influenced by Apple (AAPL), dropped 6 points to 2,539. Apple was off $4.31 to $556.97 after hitting as high as $573.88. The shares are up 4.7% this week, although they're still down 4.9% for the month.

The Greek situation injected itself into U.S. trading on Papademos' comment that the country had no choice but to stick with a painful austerity program or face a damaging exit from the euro zone. The risk, he said, was unlikely to materialize but still was real.

European finance officials are to meet Tuesday after the Greek situation, but investors have no hope that a decision that inspires confidence will emerge.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$91.66			$92.57			-12.60%			-7.25%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$2.8614			$2.8603			-10.14%			-1.81%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$2.7070			$2.6090			18.47%			-9.43%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$2.9370			$2.9401			-6.00%			10.52%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$108.20			$108.81			-9.49%			0.76%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.6800			$3.6890			-3.56%			12.33%
(per gallon; AAA)

A difficult Wednesday ahead?
Wednesday's market may be pressured by the Greek issue, Facebook's problems as well as weakness in technology generally.

To give it a specific name, we mean Dell (DELL). Shares of the personal-computer maker were down 10.5% after hours to $13.49 after earnings and revenue for the fiscal first quarter missed Street estimates and guidance was weak. The shares had closed up 11 cents to $15.08 in regular regular trading.

The company earned 43 cents after one-time charges and gains, 3 cents below the Street consensus of 46 cents and 55 cents a year ago. Revenue was $14.4 billion, down 4% from a year ago and about $700 million below the Street estimate of $14.91 billion.

The company said large enterprise business was off 3.3%, with public-sector revenue doew

The company projected a 2%-to-4% from 1st quarter levels, which would mean $14.7 million to $15 billion, compared a year ago's $15.66 billion.

On its analyst call, the Dell said notebook sales were off 10% from a year ago because of tablets being substituted for notebooks. While consumers opting for tablets more then businesses, the business share is growing. Dell also cited competition in Asia and April was especially weak.

"Clearly we are seeing a bit more challenging demand environment," Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden told Reuters. "Europe, in general, was down for us."

Should the Facebook IPO been pulled?
A senior Nasdaq official told customers this afternoon that it would have pulled the plug on Facebook IPO had it known the full extent of the technical problems that plagued its systems.

On a conference call after today's close, Eric Noll, Nasdaq OMX Group's (NDAQ) head of transaction services, conceded the stock exchange did not understand the severity of problems that led to a half-hour delay in the first Facebook trades. Many investors in the dark about the status of their orders for more than two hours.

One big issue was that many investors were allotted more shares than they wanted and tried to sell them immediately, flooding the Nasdaq system with shares.

Nasdaq said it can't promise customers they will be compensated for losses due to its IPO system failures.

At the same time, analysts for at least two of Facebook lead underwriters revised their financial forecasts for the company while it was holding IPO roadshow meetings with investors, according to people close to the deal.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs updated their financial projections for the social network after the company added warnings to its initial-public-offer​ing prospectus about how its user base is increasing more rapidly than the number of ads it delivers.

That trend was blamed in part on the increasing use of Facebook by users using smart phones. Facebook traditionally hasn't shown ads to smart-phone users. 

Although the exact date of the analyst revisions wasn't clear, sources told The Wall Street Journal said the changes came soon after Facebook updated its prospectus on May 9, about a week before the offering priced.

Analysts for at least two of Facebook Inc.'s lead underwriters revised their financial forecasts for the company while it was holding IPO roadshow meetings with investors, according to people close to the deal.

Ford is back to investment grade with Moody's
Ford Motor (F) was up 15 cents to $10.34 after hours after Moody's Investors Service raised its rating on the company to Baa3 from Ba2. Fitch Ratings boosted Ford to investment grade last month.

The Moody's upgrade means Ford can now reclaim the collateral underpinning $23.5 billion in loans that Ford took in 2006 to fund its turnaround.

Financial stocks lead the market
Utility and financial stocks were the market leaders. Materials, telecommunications and technology stocks were among the laggards.

Fifteen of the 30 Dow stocks were higher, along with 273 S&P 500 stocks and 50 stocks in the Nasdaq-100 Index.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), up $1.50 to $34.01, and Bank of America (BAC), up 22 cents to $7.05, were the leaders among the 30 Dow stocks, followed by Home Depot (HD), which benefited from the existing-home sales report. Home Depot rival Lowe's (LOW) was initially higher but closed down 11 cents to $25.49.

Urban Outfitters (URBN) and JPMorgan Chase were the S&P 500 leaders, with Netflix (NFLX) and dialysis-services company DaVita (DVA) the laggards.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) led the Nasdaq-100, followed by Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) and Vodaphone (VOD). Netflix and Seagate Technologies (STX) were the laggards.

Crude oil and gold drop again
Crude oil (-CL) and gold (-GC) were lower -- partly a reaction to the continuing rise of the dollar against the euro. Crude oil in New York was down 91 cents to $91.66, its lowest close since Oct. 26. Brent crude, the benchmark North Sea crude, was down 23 cents to $108.58.

The national retail price of gasoline was at $3.68, down from Monday's $3.689. That's down 25.6 cents since peaking at $3.936 in early April.

Gold, meanwhile, settled down $12.10 to $1,576.60 an ounce. Gold is down 5% this month and up just 0.6% for the year. It's down 16.7% since peaking at $1,891.90 in August.

Silver (-SI) was off 14.2 cents to $28.18 an ounce. Copper (-HG) settled down 1.5 cents to $3.487 a pound.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.793% from Monday's 1.735%.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0800%			0.070%			-11.11%			700.00%
5-year Treasury note			0.770%			0.741%			-5.06%			-7.23%
10-year Treasury note			1.793%			1.735%			-6.37%			-4.17%
30-year Treasury bond			2.892%			2.794%			-6.98%			0.10%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			81.648			81.232			3.55%			1.40%
British pound			1.5758			1.5828			-2.98%			1.42%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.635			£0.632			3.07%			-1.40%
Euro in dollars			$1.27			$1.28			-4.31%			-2.17%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.789			€ 0.781			4.50%			2.22%
U.S. $ in yen			80.06			79.30			0.08%			3.84%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.34			6.32			0.63%			0.23%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.978			$0.983			-3.44%			-0.27%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$1.023			$1.017			3.57%			0.27%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,576.60			$1,588.70			-5.26%			0.63%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.4875			$3.502			-8.93%			1.50%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$28.1790			$28.3210			-9.15%			0.95%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$6.8550			$7.0400			4.74%			5.02%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$5.9700			$6.330			-5.87%			-7.66%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.7452			0.7752			-16.64%			-18.72%
(per pound)
Coffee			$1.7450			1.7515			-2.81%			-24.01%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$91.66			$92.57			-12.60%			-7.25%
(per barrel)