U.S. stocks open lower as H-P sheds 13% of value and trades at 52-week low

By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) U.S. stocks on Tuesday closed nearly unchanged after a two-session surge as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged lawmakers to make a deal and end uncertainty over the so-called fiscal cliff of scheduled spending cuts and tax hikes.

This is a classic fear-driven market. It seems like people in Washington are much more willing to play nice together, but a lot of folks on Main Street and Wall Street just dont trust them yet, said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449 DJIA +0.38% fell 7.45 points, or less than 0.1%, to 12,788.51, with Hewlett-Packard Co. /quotes/zigman/229301/quotes/nls/hpq HPQ +1.96% pacing losses that included 12 of the indexs 30 components.

H-Ps shares skidded 12% after the Dow component reported fourth-quarter revenue below expectations and earnings above estimates, but only after excluding a large accounting charge tied to alleged fraud by an acquired company. See: How Hewlett-Packard was duped in Autonomy deal.

The S&P 500 index /quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX +0.23% rose nearly 1 point to 1,387.81, with technology the poorest performer and health care faring the best among the 10 industry groups.

The Nasdaq Composite /quotes/zigman/123127 COMP +0.34% added 0.61 point to 2,916.68.

Advancers edged just ahead of decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where 641 million shares traded. Composite volume neared 3.2 billion.

In a speech Tuesday afternoon in New York, Bernanke said Washington needs to resolve the uncertainty over U.S. tax and spending policy weighing on consumers, businesses and markets. Read more of what Bernanke had to say.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warns of the dangers of the fiscal cliff in a speech Tuesday, saying all the automatic tax increases and spending cuts would pose "a substantial threat to the recovery."

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U.S. stocks open lower as H-P sheds 13% of value and trades at 52-week low