Bernanke said the Fed is still monitoring banks and other systematically important financial institutions. But it has widened its scope to include other important participants that could either trigger a crisis or make the system more vulnerable.

Chief among them is the so-called shadow banking system, which includes loans that are turned into securities and sold to investors. It was the breakdown of lending in the area of sub-prime mortgages that helped trigger the 2008 crisis.

In a speech to a banking conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Bernanke said the Fed is also looking more closely at asset markets and the nonfinancial sector, which includes consumers and businesses.

"Probably our best defense against complacency during extended periods of calm is careful monitoring for signs of emerging vulnerabilities," Bernanke said.

The 2008 financial crisis helped push the country into the worst recession since the 1930s. Bernanke said the country is still suffering from the effects of the crisis and economic downturn.

"Our economy has not yet fully regained the jobs lost in the recession that accompanied the financial near collapse," Bernanke said. "And our financial system despite significant healing over the past four years continues to struggle with the economic, legal and reputational consequences of the events of 2007 to 2009."

In 2010, Congress passed a sweeping overhaul of financial regulation that President Barack Obama signed into law. But opponents of the law, including many of the nation's biggest banks, have mounted an aggressive effort to overturn key provisions that target some of the most influential institutions.

The regulatory overhaul adopted tougher requirements for these institutions that are considered "too big to fail." Their collapse could put the entire financial system at risk. Many of the rules are still being finalized.

For example, banks are being asked to hold larger amounts of capital to cushion against risk. And regulators could seize a company that is threatening the system, dismantle it and sell off the pieces.

Asked about these efforts Friday, Bernanke said that the Fed and other banking regulators were working hard to put in place the regulations needed to implement the too-big-to-fail provisions.

"Too big to fail is partly a credibility issue on the part of the government," Bernanke said. "Will the markets believe the government will go through with its commitment to wind down an institution?"

Bernanke said that if the regulatory overhaul has not adequately addressed this issue, regulators may need to increase the capital requirements further for banks. He said that could be preferable to "arbitrarily saying banks can be no larger than a certain size."

Bernanke was also asked about regulators' ability to detect asset bubbles, such as the surge in home prices that contributed to the financial crisis. Bernanke said that's difficult to do. He suggested strengthening the broader financial system so that it is not as vulnerable to such triggers.

___

Associated Press reporter Don Babwin in Chicago contributed to this report.

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Kimi Raikkonen has played down any setback to his Formula One championship hopes as a result of the departure of Lotus technical director James Allison.

"For me it doesn't really make a difference," the 2007 champion, second in the standings after four of the 19 races, told reporters at the Spanish Grand Prix on Thursday.

"I cannot tell if it will make a difference in one week or in one year, or if it won't make a difference at all. It's not like it suddenly happened one day," added the taciturn Finn, who won the season-opener in Australia in March.

"People have discussed it and the team will have known it was coming for a while. So it's not like we woke up and it's different to what it was when we went to sleep."

Lotus announced on Wednesday that the highly rated Allison was leaving and had been replaced internally by engineering director Nick Chester.

The move was seen as a blow to Raikkonen, coming on the eve of the first race of the European season and at a time of intense development before teams begin to switch their focus to the 2014 cars.

Allison has been linked to most of the top teams, but particularly Ferrari, in paddock speculation.

The Briton worked for Ferrari during the years of dominance with Michael Schumacher and was then at Renault - the team that is now Lotus - when Ferrari's current driver Fernando Alonso won his two titles there in 2005 and 2006.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said on Wednesday that the speculation was no more than that and Alonso was non-committal on Thursday.

"I don't really have an opinion on that," the Spaniard said when asked how highly he rated Allison and whether he wanted to work with him again.

"He will chose what he prefers. He may chose to stay at home. I don't know. We just know the news from yesterday and we don't have any more news."

Alonso pointed out also that Allison was also at Renault with him in the 2008 and 2009 seasons when their car was less successful.

"But we saw the Lotus car in the last two years and it's no secret that he's one of the top men here and we will see what future he has," added the double champion.

(Editing by John Mehaffey)

ROCKY RIDGE, Maryland (Reuters) - The horse is an American icon. It races gracefully, performs heavy farm tasks, can do tricks and, if television is to be believed, may even talk. But only one is an accomplished painter.

Metro Meteor, a 10-year-old thoroughbred bay in rural Maryland, is enjoying singular success. Within just months of applying his first brush stroke to paper, he is juggling requests for public appearances, weighing endorsement offers and earning thousands of dollars for his work.

Slowed by bad knees, the racehorse was retired in 2009 and adopted by Ron and Wendy Krajewski. Unable to ride the crippled horse, Ron, a local artist, decided to teach the horse to paint in order to spend more time with him.

Elephants are known to paint with their trunks, he reasoned, and Metro did tend to bob his head a lot while in his stall.

The paintings caught on, and success ensued. Metro is now the best-selling artist at Gallery 30, a small shop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which started selling his work four months ago.

Metro's paintings feature colorful, sweeping brushstrokes, complete with specks of sawdust - not surprising as the horse paints by swinging his head, a paintbrush clenched in his teeth.

"For his large paintings, there is a waiting list of 120," said Ron Krajewski in an interview this week.

The larger acrylics, 20 inches by 20 inches (51 x 51 cms), sell for $850 at the gallery, he said, and smaller cut-down versions, 5 inches by 7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cms), are $80.

One of Metro's large paintings sold on eBay for more than $2,000, and bidding for another one on Friday was hovering at $800 with only a few hours to go.

In total, about 40 large and 150 small works have sold, adding up to more than $20,000, Krajewski said.

As the owners say on Metro's website: "Art scholars are not going to have long lengthy discussions trying to decipher the hidden meaning to Metro's paintings. He is a horse.

"It is what it is. A painting you can hang on your wall and tell all your friends it was painted by a horse," they said.

Typically, horse and owner paint for an hour or two, maybe four times a week, Ron Krajewski said, adding that Metro never seems to get bored with the task.

Metro lives at Motter's Station Stables, near Rocky Ridge, a small town in the rolling hills of northern Maryland. An indoor arena doubles as his studio.

One morning this week, the horse demonstrated his technique - interpreted by Wendy Krajewski - to a visitor.

"He'll roll ... he likes to roll," she said, and within minutes, the horse knelt, lay on his side and began to roll on his back.

Then he got to his feet, walked over to his easel and array of paints and wrapped his muzzle around a paintbrush. Friendly and laid-back, he scarcely fit the stereotype of a high-strung thoroughbred.

A former turf sprinter, considered among the fastest at Saratoga and Belmont Park, Metro won about $300,000 during his racing career, his owners said.

When his knees deteriorated, forcing him off the track, the Krajewskis, who owned a percentage of the horse, adopted Metro with plans to use him for casual trail riding. They also own a quarterhorse and another adopted thoroughbred.

The horse was able to take short trail rides, but eventually his weak knees left him unable to support the weight of a rider, they said.

The Krajewskis donate half of Metro's earnings to New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program, a charity that seeks homes and rehabilitation for retired racehorses. The owner of Gallery 30 donates a portion of Metro's profits to a local animal shelter.

"We use the rest to pay for his medical bills," Ron Krajewski said. "The special treatment for his knees is very expensive."

Metro suffers from arthritis, cartilitis or frozen joints, and rapid bone growth, among other health issues.

At first, his prognosis was bleak and if he continued to deteriorate, he could die within two or three years, his owners said.

But recent X-rays showed that an experimental bone remodeling treatment had improved one knee, they said, and treatment on another knee will begin this month.

Metro's popularity has gone national. He has appeared on network television and has received endorsement offers, his owners said.

The volume of business offers prompted the Krajewskis to retain an intellectual property attorney.

Their horse, they noted, is oblivious to earnings and acclaim. As long as he has fresh water and hay, some treats and a pasture where he can nibble grass, run and roll in the dirt, Metro is happy, they said.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

"Its incredible, you just try to live an honest genuine life and the next thing you know, you've got the president calling you," he told ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday.

Collins said President Barack Obama had been encouraging in the telephone conversation.

"He was incredibly supportive and said he was proud of me and said this not only affected my life but others going forward," he said.

Asked about the scale of reaction to his decision to come out, Collins said: "That's kind of mind-boggling... I never set out to be the first," he said.

"I'm ready to raise my hand but, you know, you still look around like, 'OK, come on guys.'

"It's time for someone else in the room to raise their hand and say: 'You know what? Yeah, so big deal. I can still play basketball. I can still help the team win, and that's what's most important,'" he added.

The 34-year-old center revealed his sexuality in an article published by Sports Illustrated on Monday and said he was glad that he was now 'out'.

"I know that I, right now, am the happiest that I've ever been in my life," he said.

"A huge weight has been lifted. I've already been out to my family and my friends, but just to, you know, sort of rip the Band-Aid off and come out on my own terms."

Collins is currently a free agent after spending last season with the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards but said he expects future team-mates to welcome him.

"From my team-mates I am expecting support because that is what I would do for my team-mates, team is like a family and the NBA is like a brotherhood and I am looking it at that we will all support each other on and off the court," he said.

Asked about what advice he would give to a young gay man hoping to make it in the NBA, Collins said he should focus on the game.

"It doesn't matter that you are gay but the key thing is - its about basketball. Its about working hard, its about sacrificing for your team," he said.

Collins could well be the first of several gay players in top sports to come out but he said everyone's decision on how open to be was based on their own circumstances.

"I hope that every player makes a decision that leads to their own happiness. I know that I, right now am the happiest I have been in my life," he said.

(Reporting by Simon Evans, editing by Justin Palmer)

MIAMI (Reuters) - World number one Serena Williams fought back from a set down to beat Maria Sharapova 4-6 6-3 6-0 and win the Sony Open for a record sixth time on Saturday as she continued her dominance over her closest rival.

With the win, Williams, who struggled with her serve in the first two sets, becomes only the fourth woman in the Open era to win the same WTA tournament six times, joining Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.

"I finally have some record," Williams said. "Like it's really cool. I can't seem to catch up with Margaret Court or Steffi or anything. I'm really happy to have something right now, so it's exciting.

"Maria played really the best I have seen her play, and I think she was moving unbelievable and she was hitting winners from everywhere. .... How did I end up winning when I actually wasn't on top of my game?"

Second-ranked Sharapova has now lost to Williams in their last 11 meetings and has not beaten the American since her two victories in 2004.

To add to the pain, the match was Sharapova's fifth Miami final and her fifth defeat.

"I had my chances. There's no reason why I couldn't win the match today," said the Russian, who dismissed any suggestion of a psychological weakness against Williams.

"It was a step in the right direction and there's no doubt that we'll be playing many more times. There's no doubt I'll be able to beat her."

STRONG START

Sharapova, who won at Indian Wells earlier this month, took her great form into the opening set, almost breaking Williams in a marathon third game featuring some outstanding baseline rallies.

The Russian, playing sparkling all-round tennis, got her reward when she broke to go 3-2, with a powerful backhand shot that Williams could only return to the net.

Williams broke back straight away though, but a confident Sharapova took advantage of some over-hitting from the American to break in the ninth game and served out to win the set.

It looked as though Sharapova had a real chance to finally end her nine-year winless streak against the American but, as so often, Williams refound her game in the second.

"I was just making so many errors, and I just was like, 'Serena, are you really going to get to the final and not play up to your potential?'" said Williams.

After some entertaining exchanges, a double-fault from Sharapova handed Williams a break point and the Russian's return to the net gave Williams a 5-3 lead and she held to force the third set.

The match turned decisively in Williams' favour when Sharapova produced two double-faults to go down 3-0 in the third set and the Russian never was able to claw back from that position.

"I was losing a little bit of pace on my ball which hurt me," said Sharapova. "Against a player like Serena, you can't really do that."

Williams, who has 15 Grand Slam singles titles, was happy to claim the record but was far from satisfied with her performance.

"One of the first things I said (after the match) is I need that tape so I can go home and study it and train and try to get better," she said.

The move is seen as part of international sanctions on the country over its disputed nuclear program. The West has imposed banking and insurance sanctions on Iran since it suspects Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

At a Tehran shopping mall, owners of mobile phones and tablets said Thursday that they had received the message via email from the company late the night before. Retailers said they had no power over the decision.

"We have heard about it, but we are only responsible for hardware here, not software and apps," shopkeeper Bijan Ashtiani said.

In the message, Samsung said that it cannot provide access to the store, known as Samsung Apps, in Iran because of "legal barriers." It apologized to customers in emailed statement seen by the Associated Press on Thursday.

Samsung's offices in Tehran could not be immediately reached for comment due to the weekend there, and its headquarters in South Korea did not immediately respond to a request.

The decision quickly provoked ire on social media.

"Samsung is to stop its apps in Iran, oh how we appreciate our officials," wrote Bahareh, a Twitter user blaming Tehran's policy. Another, named Armin, pointed at the technology giant itself, saying: "Now, Samsung's sanctions honor us as well!"

Samsung spokesman Chris Jung in Seoul declined to comment.

Unlike Apple, Microsoft and Adobe, Samsung has provided localized services to Iranians in their native Persian language. In 2012, Finnish communications giant Nokia stopped its services in the country.

Police began searching for the suspects on Friday in the southern region of Araucania.

Officials say the 3-day-old baby was thrown onto a bonfire in November because the leader of the sect believed that the child was the antichrist.

Police arrested four other members of the sect Thursday after a months-long investigation. Among them was the baby's mother, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra.

In her written court statement, she said that all sect members knew that her child "would be murdered" and that they had to obey the leader because he "was God."

The ringleader is 36-year-old Ramon Gustavo Castillo. Police say he escaped to Peru and authorities are working with Interpol to capture him.

LONDON (Reuters) - Unprecedented levels of skill, intensity and endurance have transformed global sport into spectacular mass entertainment and handsomely rewarded its leading exponents.

Now that the euphoria of last year's acclaimed London Olympics has dissipated, however, a spate of troubling stories in the first quarter of 2013 show an altogether darker and more disturbing side to a glamorous, multi-billion-dollar industry.

In January, American cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted in a television interview that he had doped before each of his record seven Tour de France victories.

His confession after years of denial followed the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) decision to strip him of the title and accuse him of being at the center of the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".

A report from Australia's top criminal intelligence unit linked doping in sport with money-laundering and match-fixing after a year-long investigation. Six leading rugby league clubs, from one of the country's four football codes in a sports-obsessed nation, confirmed they were under scrutiny.

And Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, on trial in Madrid for allegedly running a doping ring in cycling, said in his opening testimony that he also had clients in soccer, tennis, athletics and boxing.

Fuentes, who said outside the court this month that he might be willing to co-operate with anti-doping authorities, is appearing in court almost seven years after steroids and blood bags were seized in an investigation code-named Operation Puerto.

"The same people who are trafficking in steroids and encouraging athletes to cheat by doping are the ones who are engaged in illegal betting," said World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) director general David Howman.

"This is essentially money-laundering, bribery and corruption in relation to match-fixing and spot-fixing."

BLACK MARKETS

At a WADA media symposium in London in February, Howman said at least 25 percent of international sport was controlled by the underworld.

"The black markets supply a lot of pharmaceutical products before they are out on the white market," he said. "That's run by the criminal underworld, so a lot of the pharmaceutical stuff comes out in that way."

Rob Koehler, the director of education and program development at WADA, told an anti-doping conference in London this month the drugs problem in sport reflected the problems of society as a whole.

"We are always trying to push the limit," he said. "Adults are cheating. Students are cheating, in fact they think they are smart if they don't get caught."

Koehler said one percent of the population as a whole was rich while the middle class was shrinking and the lower class growing. The position was similar in sport.

"Top athletes are making millions, some athletes make a modest living, most barely get by," he said. "But what some athletes used to make in their career they are now making in one year."

Doping's black heartland has traditionally been in the speed and strength sports of track and field, weightlifting and cycling.

But it has also become increasingly apparent that the nature of ball sports, which rely on a unique set of skills peculiar to their disciplines, has changed.

Baseball, with its explosion of home runs in the 1990s, is an obvious example and this year slugger Barry Bonds, the record holder for home runs, and pitcher Roger Clemens, a seven-times Cy Young winner, were not elected to the Hall of Fame.

WIDESPREAD DOPING

The pair, appearing on the ballot for the first time after waiting five years following their retirements, were linked with performance-enhancing drugs in the Mitchell report which detailed widespread doping in the sport.

Baseball is similar in nature to Twenty20 cricket, where strength as well as technique is necessary to repeatedly clear the boundaries. Rugby union players, who used to be a mixture of the big and the powerful and the small and the speedy, are now uniformly bulked up.

Tennis, as the five-set marathons now common in the men's game demonstrate, demands sustained power and endurance to an extent once unimaginable.

Even golfers, as the modern breed of players headed by Tiger Woods demonstrates, are now athletes working out in the gym as well as frequenting the driving range.

In England, the Football Association reacted to concerns expressed by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger about the possible use of EPO by announcing it would bring in testing for the blood booster, which was introduced into cycling in the 1990s.

"We have had some players come to us at Arsenal from other clubs abroad and their red blood cell count has been abnormally high. That kind of thing makes you wonder," Wenger said.

Wenger also called for blood testing in soccer, adding: "I don't think we do enough. It is very difficult for me to believe that you have 740 players in the World Cup and you come out with zero problems."

Roger Federer, a 17-times grand-slam tennis champion, also called for the introduction of biological passports, pioneered in cycling and subsequently introduced in athletics, which track changes in a competitor's blood profile which could be caused only by doping.

"A blood passport will be necessary as some substances can't be discovered right now but might in the future, and that risk of discovery can chase cheats away," the Swiss said.

"But there also should be more blood tests and out-of- competition controls in tennis."

WADA and its president John Fahey, whose six-year term ends this year, have never been busier and he told the London symposium there was no sign the bad news would end any time soon.

"As long as there is sporting competition there will be athletes who choose to cheat, and consequently a need to lead the fight against this global threat to sport's integrity," Fahey said.

"And, if the last eight months are anything to go by, that need is increasing in its urgency rather than receding."

(Editing by Clare Fallon)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is nearing a deal to buy genetic testing equipment maker Life Technologies Corp for close to $13 billion, according to four people familiar with the matter, in what would be one of the year's biggest corporate takeovers.

The acquisition would catapult Thermo Fisher into the hot field of genetic sequencing, where researchers, drugmakers and doctors are uncovering the genetic factors underpinning diseases to better tailor treatments to the patients.

Life Technologies' board met on Saturday to review three takeover offers. It chose Thermo Fisher over Sigma-Aldrich Corp, a maker of chemicals for research laboratories, and a private equity consortium consisting of Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP, KKR & Co LP and Temasek Holdings, the sources said on Sunday.

The final price being negotiated is in the region of $75 per share, valuing Life Technologies at close to $13 billion, one of the sources added. A deal could come as soon as Monday, though negotiations could yet fall apart as terms are being finalized.

Life Technologies, Thermo Fisher, Sigma-Aldrich and the private equity consortium did not respond to requests for comment.

Analysts have previously said the combination of Waltham, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher and Carlsbad, California-based Life Technologies would create an unparalleled life sciences company and put Thermo on the road to $20 billion in revenues.

Life Technologies would be Thermo Fisher's biggest acquisition since the $12.8 billion merger in 2006 of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific International that created the world's largest maker of scientific equipment and laboratory instruments.

A deal at $75 per share would represent a premium of 36 percent on Life Technologies' closing share price on January 17, the day before it announced it had mandated Deutsche Bank AG and Moelis & Co to assist in a strategic review.

The stock closed at $68 on the Nasdaq on Friday, up 39 percent so far this year on speculation about a possible deal. The S&P 500 Index is up just 11.4 percent in the same period.

PERSONALIZED MEDICINE

Life Technologies, which has a market value of $11.6 billion and debt of about $2.4 billion, explored a sale after previous attempts by Chief Executive Gregory Lucier to boost the value of the company's shares and capture more market share from rival Illumina Inc proved unsuccessful.

Illumina had already demonstrated the appeal of gene-sequencing companies that help analyze a person's genetic blueprint to develop personalized medical treatment. Drugmaker Roche Holding AG had made a $6.8 billion hostile offer for Illumina last year but walked away when the company demanded a higher price.

Life Technologies had also attracted interest from Roche and industrial and healthcare conglomerate Danaher Corp, sources previously told Reuters. Yet in the end it was only Thermo Fisher and Sigma-Aldrich that saw enough synergies to pursue a merger.

Thermo Fisher's products range from the most basic scientific equipment, such as test tubes, to advanced mass spectrometry equipment used to determine the chemical structure of molecules. It also sells chemicals, agents and antibodies used in the manufacturing and research of biotech medicine, and has enhanced its portfolio of environmental safety products for testing air and water quality and food safety in recent years.

The Life Technologies deal would boost Thermo Fisher's presence in scientific research, genetic analysis and applied sciences. Thermo Fisher has been quite acquisitive in recent years, buying Phadia for $3.5 billion in 2011 and Dionex for $2.1 billion in 2010.

Life Technologies had sought a higher price from bidders after receiving committed offers last Tuesday, the people familiar with the matter said. They asked not to be identified because the matter is not yet public.

The private equity consortium also raised its offer on Friday from $65 to about $67 per share, short of Thermo Fisher's bid, one of the people said.

The price and structure of the offer from Sigma-Aldrich, which has a $9.2 billion market value and has been working with Morgan Stanley on the offer, could not be determined. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

At 15.2 times projected 12-month earnings, Life Technologies already trades at a premium to its peer group, which averages 13.9 times projected 12-month earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Life Technologies is also the product of the combination of two companies - Invitrogen, a maker of cultures used in the manufacture of biotech medicines, and the genetic testing company Applied Biosystems.

Paulson & Co, a top Life Technologies shareholder which has a stake in the company of more than 8 percent, would be supportive of a deal at $75 per share as it stands to make a profit of about $400 million, according to two people familiar with the hedge fund manager. Paulson declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Bill Berkrott in New York; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)

The AP released the following statement at 1:12 p.m.: "The (at)AP twitter account has been hacked. The tweet about an attack at the White House is false. We will advise more as soon as possible."

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 150 points after the fake Twitter posting, then quickly recovered.

Other markets also reacted to the fake posting.

The price of crude oil fell, then rose back. The yield on the benchmark U.S. government bond, the 10-year Treasury note, briefly dropped as traders shifted money into low-risk investments.

The turmoil lasted for about five minutes. By about 1:13 p.m., stocks, bonds and crude oil were all trading about where they were before the fake tweet was posted.

The stock market started higher Tuesday following strong earnings across a range of U.S. industries. Makers of handbags, jet planes and chemical products all turned in good results for the first quarter, reviving investors' confidence after a sharp downturn in the stock market last week.

Coach, Lockheed Martin, DuPont and Travelers were among the winners after they reported results that were better than analysts expected. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index both rose nearly 1 percent in morning trading, putting them on track for a third straight day of gains.

A resurgence in corporate profits after the Great Recession has been one of the drivers that pushed both the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to record levels this year. However investors are starting to question how much further company earnings can improve without the outlook for growth in the global economy improving as well.

Tuesday's upturn in stocks put both indexes back in the black for April and closer to the record high closes they reached on April 11. It was a sharp change of tone from last week, when the market had its worst drop since November. That sell-off started after economic growth in China, the world's second-largest economy, slowed.

So far, about 70 percent of the companies that reported earnings for the first quarter have beaten analysts' expectations, better than the 10-year average of 62 percent, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. Analysts currently expect earnings to rise by 2.1 percent in the first quarter, compared with 7.7 percent growth in the previous three-month period.

Netflix soared 25 percent to $219 after reporting a big gain in subscribers in the first quarter late yesterday. Coach, which makes Luxury handbags and other accessories, soared 11 percent to $56.44. Lockheed rose 2 percent to $97.25. DuPont and Travelers each rose 3 percent, to $51.88 and $86.88.

The Dow was up 123 points at 14,691 as of 1:45 p.m. The S&P 500 was 14 points higher at 1,576. Both indexes are 1 percent below their record high closes from nearly two weeks ago.

The Nasdaq composite rose 34 points to 3,267.

Crudedropped about 60 cents after the fake tweet, to $88.40 from $89, then quickly recouped that loss. At 1:45 it was down 22 cents to $88.98

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 1.70 percent, unchanged from late Monday.

Apple, the biggest component in the index, reports earnings after the market closes. Apple has lost 23 percent of its value this year. Investor worry that demand for the iPhone is waning as competitors like Samsung sell more smartphones. It stock was up 2 percent at $405.