NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Stocks slumped Wednesday, paced by technology, after Cisco's sales miss revived fears about a slowdown in corporate profit growth.

A big gain for Hewlett-Packard (up $1.39 to $21.53, Research), which jumped after CEO Carly Fiorina was forced to resign, wasn't enough to counteract a wave of profit taking in the rest of the technology sector.

The tech-fueled Nasdaq composite (down 34.13 to 2,052.55, Charts) was hit the hardest, losing around 1.6 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 60.52 to 10,664.11, Charts) and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (down 10.31 to 1,191.99, Charts) index both saw smaller declines.

A rally in the bond market added to the day's pressures, with investors pouring money into Treasuries following completion of a $15 billion auction of five-year notes Wednesday.

The dollar fell slightly against other major currencies, and gold ended the session with slim gains.

"The market has had a respectable run-up since its January 24 lows, and today you're seeing some profit taking," said Joe Sunderman, market analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Thursday morning brings reports on the December trade balance and weekly jobless claims.

The trade gap is expected to have narrowed to $57.0 billion in December from $60.3 billion in November, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment is expected to have risen to 325,000 last week from 316,000 the previous week.

Earnings are due early Thursday from LM Ericsson (Research), among others.

Ericsson is expected to have earned around 54 cents per share, up from 7 cents a year ago.

The day's biggest corporate news came from HP, a Dow component. The printer and computer maker's board ousted chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina due to disagreements over strategy.

Analysts generally said that the move was a good one for the company, and investors seemed to agree. Shares initially rallied more than 10 percent on the news, but finished the day with gains of just under 7 percent. (For more on this story, click here.)

Cisco Systems (down $0.61 to $17.63, Research) reported fiscal second-quarter earnings late Tuesday that rose from a year earlier and met estimates, on sales that missed forecasts. Gross margins, a key measure of profitability, also came up short of expectations.

The company, often seen as a bellwether for technology spending, forecast that fiscal third-quarter revenue would be flat to up two percent versus the second quarter, below analysts' current estimates.

Shares fell 3.3 percent and weighed on the Nasdaq.

"The Cisco news isn't that significant, but maybe it's enough to influence people who were looking to get out," Sunderman added. "The S&P 500 had recently been right near its late December highs, so it's not too surprising to see this consolidation."

Stocks have risen for the last two weeks, bouncing after a tough start to the year. However, stocks have been pretty flat this week, with investors finding little incentive to move much in either direction.

"I think the movement we've seen since the beginning of the year, with a few weeks up, a few weeks down, is likely to continue at least through the end of the quarter," said Barry Hyman, equity strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum.

"We seem to be stuck in a trading range," he added.

The influential chip sector was weaker across the board, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor (down 9.57 to 417.92, Charts) index, or the SOX, down 2.2 percent.

Inspire Pharmaceuticals (down $7.12 to $8.88, Research) fell more than 44 percent in active Nasdaq trade after the company said its treatment for dry eye did not yield expected results in a clinical trial.

However, declines covered a variety of sectors, with 25 out of 30 Dow components falling.

Among the losers, Alcoa (down $0.76 to $29.24, Research) fell 2.5 percent, Walt Disney (down $0.49 to $29.35, Research) fell 1.6 percent and Altria (down $1.12 to $65.28, Research) fell 1.7 percent.

On the upside, shares of American International Group (up $1.58 to $69.31, Research) added 2.3 percent. The Dow component reported earnings of $1.17 per share early Wednesday, up from a year ago and more than expected.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners nearly two to one on volume of around 1.51 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by nearly three to one on volume of 1.95 billion shares.

Oil prices ended close to unchanged after spiking in the morning and falling in the early afternoon following the release of the weaker-than-expected weekly oil inventories report.

U.S. light crude oil prices for March delivery rose 6 cents to settle at $45.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Two Fed governors quoted Wednesday offered different takes on interest rate policy.

Federal Bank of Atlanta President Jack Guynn said that while the Fed still has a way to go in raising interest rates, the language in the Fed's statement may change soon to remove the words "measured" and "accommodative," according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Fed watchers said the comments implied that the rate hiking campaign may be set to take a breather after the next few meetings.

Separately, Fed Board Governor Edward Gramlich said that the Fed has to be mindful of inflation risks, but that so far the central bank is comfortable with the level of inflation. The governor was speaking at a symposium in Denver.

Treasury prices rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 3.98 percent from 4.01 percent late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and was little changed versus the yen.

COMEX gold rose 20 cents to settle at $414.50 an ounce.