* Riverbed's outlook helps lift Nasdaq
* JPMorgan shares slip after CEO's comments on dividend
* Obama says will not renew tax breaks for the wealthy
* Dow up 0.1 pct, S&P up 0.02 pct, Nasdaq up 0.6 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news see []
(Updates to close)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks finished mostly
flat in a choppy session on Wednesday, as investors bet on
strong technology earnings even as JPMorgan Chase's numbers
weighed on other market sectors.
Network equipment maker Riverbed Technology Inc <RVBD.O>
boosted the industry and helped buoy the Nasdaq after its
quarterly outlook. The stock surged 12.4 percent to $34.74 on
four times the average daily volume over the last 50 days.
"This earnings season is an expectation game," said King
Lip, chief investment officer of Baker Avenue Asset Management
in San Francisco.
He said after Riverbed's competitor F5 reported poor
earnings in January, "analysts pretty much thought companies
like Riverbed were going to miss. That's why you see the
strong reaction in their shares today."
F5 Networks Inc <FFIV.O> shares gained 3.1 percent to
$96.70.
JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N> shares fell 0.8 percent to
$46.25 after earlier rising more than 1 percent. The Dow
component beat expectations with its profit, but enthusiasm
waned after the bank's chief executive said in a conference
call there would not be another dividend hike soon.
"Most people had expected JPMorgan to do well. That was
factored in already," Lip said.
In an outline of his budget proposal, President Barack
Obama said he would refuse to renew Bush-era tax breaks for
wealthier Americans. A deal to extend those cuts last December
propelled the S&P 500 to its highest level in two years.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> gained 7.41
points, or 0.06 percent, to 12,270.99. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> inched up 0.25 of a point, or 0.02 percent,
to 1,314.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> added 16.73
points, or 0.61 percent, to 2,761.52.
EMC Corp <EMC.N> led tech shares higher after a Goldman
Sachs analyst said he expects a better-than-consensus quarter
for the top maker of corporate data storage equipment. For
details see [] EMC's shares gained 3.3 percent to
$26.69.
The S&P Information Technology Index <.GSPT> added 0.7
percent.
From a technical perspective, the S&P 500 weakened as its
daily moving average convergence-divergence, a gauge of
short-term relative performance, triggered a "sell" signal for
the first time since late March.
The benchmark S&P 500's momentum was at its lowest since
late March and its relative strength index, near 49, was
neutral and far from oversold despite posting losses in four
of the last five sessions.
Investors seem to be looking ahead to the Federal
Reserve's policy meeting in two weeks, according to Bruce
Bittles, chief investment strategist of Robert W. Baird & Co
in Nashville. The Fed is expected to detail its exit strategy
as a $600 billion asset-buying program comes to an end.
"The market is trying to find the right sector to be in,
in this kind of environment," Bittles said.
About 6.9 billion shares traded on the New York Stock
Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, below last year's estimated
daily average of 8.47 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by
1,535 to 1,374, while on the Nasdaq 1,317 shares rose and
1,251 stocks fell.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)
