Wall Street staged a recovery from steep early falls today as materials and healthcare sectors edged off session lows and worries eased about the strength of an economic recovery.

Initially, indexes slid more than 1 percent, a drop compounded by baseless worries over Greece’s debt problems.The role of Wall Street firms in deals that may have helped Greece mask its debt woes are under scrutiny in the US, the Federal Reserve chief has said.

Ben Bernanke said the Fed and the US financial watchdog were “looking into a number of questions” related to banks’ derivatives arrangements with Greece.

CNBC reported a “rumor” about a possible Apple Inc (AAPL) share split. Apple is showing its true mobile colors. The company is on the lookout for an engineer who can help get its mobile-phone software onto additional devices.

On Feb. 15, Apple (AAPL) posted an ad on its Web site for an engineering manager “to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS [operating system] on new platforms.” Days later, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook called the company “a mobile device company,” echoing remarks by Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who in January said “Apple is the largest mobile device company in the world.”

Berkshire BRK.A BRK.B Unlike many corporate chiefs, Warren Buffett often plays down the prospects of his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N), while trying to keep investors focused on the long term.

This year, he has many more investors to address.

Buffett will release his annual letter to shareholders of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire on Saturday.

While Buffett speaks in public much more often than he used to, his letter — typically more than 10,000 words — is still read widely by those seeking wisdom about investing, finance, and the greedy or ignorant people who try to mess it all up.

Following Berkshire’s stock split, purchase of railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp, and admission to the Standard & Poor’s 500 .SPX, far more investors will have a stake in the decisions of the world’s second-richest person.

* The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 96.66 points, or 0.93 percent, at 10,277.50. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX was down 7.97 points, or 0.72 percent, at 1,097.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was down 13.65 points, or 0.61 percent, at 2,222.25.

Shayne Heffernan www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Feb 25th, 2010and filed underLatest News, USA.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site