QUIET DAY: The Standard & Poor's 500 edged down 0.03 point. Trading volume was among the lightest of the year, about 2.8 billion shares. The average this year is 3.8 billion.

BIG APPLE: Apple became the most valuable company of all time, surpassing Microsoft's record from 1999. The company has a market value of more than $623 billion.

LOWE'S LOWER: The home improvement chain reported disappointing earnings, and the stock fell almost 6 percent, or $1.61, to $26.26.