Stocks flat after day of big gains

Stocks indexes were little changed today after a big gain the day before. Gains by retailers offset a decline in banking and financial stocks. Most other sectors were flat.

The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 3 points to 12,400 as of 12:30 p.m. Trading was relatively subdued after a surge of nearly 180 points the day before, which brought the Dow to its highest level since July.

The Dow started the day lower, losing as many as 60 points in mid-morning trading, then went back to break-even status shortly after noon.

The Standard & Poors 500 index was down less than a point at 1,276, while the Nasdaq fell 2 points to 2,646.

Phone equipment maker Acme Packet Inc. plunged almost 20 percent after saying its quarterly profit and revenue would be well below analyst expectations.

Yahoo Inc. fell 2 percent after it named Scott Thompson, president of eBay Inc.'s PayPal division, as its new CEO. Yahoo has been without a permanent CEO since firing Carol Bartz in September. The company's board lost patience with her attempts to turn around the struggling Internet company during her 2 1/2 years on the job.