Stocks managed to finish the session near breakeven despite a weak earnings report from computer heavyweight Dell (Nasdaq: DELL - News), but still closed lower for the third-straight day. Overall, stocks were relatively flat on the weak, as tech stocks lagged. Leaders through much of the rally this year, the recent weakness in tech could be a good opportunity for investors who missed out on earlier gains in the sector to start building positions.

The Home Furnishing Retailer Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Kirkland's (Nasdaq: KIRK - News) with a 18% gain.

Stocks finished in the red on the day, with the Dow off -14 points to 10,318. The S&P fell -4 point to 1,091, while the Nasdaq lost -11 points to close at 2,146. Oil dropped -74 cents to $76.72 a barrel, while gold rose $6.60 to $1,148.50 an ounce.

In earnings news, shares of Dell tumbled -10.0% after the company's Q3 earnings missed analyst estimates. For the period ended October 30th, the computer maker earned $337 million, or 17 cents per share, down -54% from $727 million, or 37 cents per share, last year. Adjusted EPS was 23 cents, a nickel below the consensus of 28 cents. Revenue dropped -15% to $12.9 billion. Dell lost its ranking as the world's No. 2 personal computer maker last quarter, replaced by Taiwan's Acer Inc. Fifty Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q4.

The J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM - News) announced that its Q2 profit nearly tripled due to its acquisition of Folgers. The stock climbed 5.4%. For the second quarter, the company posted a profit of $140 million, or $1.18 a share, up from $51.5 million, or 94 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.22, soundly beating the analyst forecast of $1.04. Sales surged 52% to $1.28 billion in a large part due to coffee sales. Smucker also raised its FY10 EPS outlook to a range of $3.95-$4.05, an increase from its prior view of $3.65-$3.80. Wall Street was expecting EPS of $3.83. Seventeen Pro investors counted the stock among their top-15 holdings at the start of Q4.

Shares of Gap (NYSE: GPS - News) inched up 0.4% after the clothing retailer posted its first quarterly sales increase since 2007. For the period ended October 31st, Gap earned $307 million, or 44 cents per share, beating the consensus by a penny. A year ago, the company earned $246 million, or 35 cents per share. Sales rose 0.8% to $3.59 billion. After falling -18% last year, Gap's Old Navy stores saw a 10% gain in same-store sales. The company said it plans to buy back $500 million in shares.

Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU - News) saw its shares slip -2.0% after its Q2 EPS forecast of 29-32 cents missed analyst expectations of 37 cents. For the first quarter, the software maker lost -$68 million, or -21 cents per share, compared with a loss of -$52 million, or -16 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS, which stripped out a one-time gain of $17 million related to compensation expenses, was a loss of -10 cents. Analysts had expected a loss of -16 cents. Revenue rose 2% to $493 million.

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