The Dow dipped while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose slightly on Tuesday as a Morgan Stanley downgrade of semiconductors weighed on the sector, while deal news bolstered views that merger activity was picking up.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp in a deal that values the railroad company at $34 billion. Late Monday, Stanley Works Inc said it struck a deal to buy Black & Decker Corp .

Technology stocks ranked among the major decliners after Morgan Stanley downgraded the sector to cautious from attractive, and cut its view on Intel Corp , saying inventories were beginning to creep up in the sector. The PHLX semiconductor index <.SOXX> lost 1.5 percent.

The downgrade of Intel was the major dampening effect, said Jim Awad, managing director at Zephyr Management in New York.

The broader issue that that brings up is: Has the stock market gotten ahead of the economy? Business is not as strong as the stock market might indicate. That's giving the market some pause, he added, in spite of the good news on Warren Buffett.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 8.69 points, or 0.09 percent, at 9,780.75. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 2.89 points, or 0.38 percent, at 1,045.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 3.49 points, or 0.17 percent, at 2,052.69.

Shares of Intel slid 2.7 percent to $18.49.

Burlington shares surged 28.4 percent to $97.66, boosting the S&P's industrial index <.GSPI> 1.4 percent.

Shares of Black & Decker jumped 23.9 percent to $58.66, while shares of Stanley Works were up 4.8 percent at $47.30.

Data showed new orders received by U.S. factories rose more than expected in September but had little impact on the broader market.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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