Stocks Fall Into Puddle of Oil

Also, clothing retailer Gap (GPS Quote) booked a climbing profit of $249 million, or 34 cents a share, but that fell short of the Street's consensus. Sales also slipped from a year earlier to a lower-than-expected $3.38 billion. Shares shed 1.8%.

Aeropostale (ARO Quote), another apparel seller, edged ahead of last quarter's bottom-line consensus as the company achieved sizable year-over-year gains in both earnings and revenue. The stock saw action on both sides of the flat line, and closed down a nickel at $32.67.

As for notable analyst actions, Merrill bumped up Apple's (AAPL Quote) price target to $215, and Goldman Sachs added the stock to its Conviction Buy List, as both brokerages cited positive expectations for the tech giant's iPhone product. Shares ratcheted up 2.3%.

Morgan Stanley upped Dell (DELL Quote) to overweight while cutting Sun Microsystems (JAVA Quote) to underweight. Dell shares were better by 1.4%; Sun stock declined 2.5%.

Treasury prices were rising. The 10-year note rose 18/32 in price to yield 3.84%, and the 30-year bond jumped 26/32 in price, yielding 4.57%.

Markets abroad were mostly falling. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.2% overnight, but the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong slid 1.3%. Among European bourses, the FTSE 100 slumped 1.5% and Germany's Xetra Dax plunged 1.8%. The Paris Cac surrendered 1.9%.