Wall St flat as healthcare offsets Apple gains

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday after losses in healthcare stocks offset strong gains by APPLE (AAPL.NQ)Inc and Morgan Stanley after they posted higher-than-expected earnings.

Morgan Stanley shares were up 5.5 percent at $32.11 after recording better-than-expected profit on strong fixed income trading. The KBW Banks index <.BKX> advanced 1.7 percent.

Apple shares advanced 5.7 percent to $258.48 one day after it posted quarterly results that crushed expectations on record iPhone sales and forecast strong revenue growth.

But healthcare shares weighed on the market as Gilead Sciences Inc dipped 10 percent to $40.50 a day after cutting its full-year sales outlook. Some analysts had downgraded the stock based on uncertainty about implementation of the new healthcare reform law in 2010 and 2011.

The S&P health care sector <.GSPA> fell more than 1.5 percent, with Abbott Laboratories down 2.2 percent to $51.95 after it trimmed its current-year forecast.

"That topic of conversation on good earnings is starting to fade out. Expectations are high, and good news is not good enough to be sustained," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 10.81 points, or 0.10 percent, at 11,127.87. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 0.30 point, or 0.02 percent, at 1,206.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 1.12 points, or 0.04 percent, at 2,501.43.

Drugmaker Merck & Co fell more than 3 percent to $34.92, one of the top decliners on the Dow.

Analysts also noted that the selloff in earlier session coincided with European markets closing at their lows of the day due to the latest worries about Greece's debt. Greek borrowing costs hit a 12-year high on Tuesday. Talks on a potential aid deal with the EU and IMF began on Wednesday.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares closed down 0.7 percent at 1,096.10 points.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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