Between the continued clean-up efforts following Hurricane and a U.S. presidential election that for all intents and purposes appears to be a virtual dead heat, investors stayed mostly on the sidelines Monday.

Investors remained cautious ahead of Election Day. The winner will have to address the fiscal cliff — with all its possible ramifications to spending, as well as the personal and corporate tax codes. And with polls suggesting the contest is a toss-up, Wall Street wasn’t itching to make many big bets.

The market did manage to edge into the black; the Nasdaq finished up 0.59% to 2,999.66, the S&P 500 gained 0.22% to finish at 1,417.26, and the Dow ended up 0.15% at 13,112.44.

Giving the Nasdaq and S&P a boost was Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which gained more than 1% on news that it sold 3 million total iPads in the three days since it launched the new iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad.

Shares of video streaming service Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose more than 2% as the company adopted a “poison pill” plan in response to involvement by activist investor Carl Icahn, who last week announced a nearly 10% stake in the company.

Electric car maker Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) gapped up 8% after reporting a mixed third quarter that saw revenues decline (but top estimates) while losses widened.

Offshore drilling services stock Transocean (NYSE:RIG) headed 5% higher after the company reported better-than-expected profit for the third quarter.

Finally, earnings at Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) missed expectations, and the company announced that 85,000 new high-speed data customers weren’t enough to offset 140,000 cable TV subscription losses during the third quarter. Shares fell more than 6% on the day.

Three Up

• Hovnanian (NYSE:HOV): Up 7.2% (34 cents) to $5.06
• Deckers Outdoor (NASDAQ:DECK): Up 6% ($1.83) to $32.12
• Huntsman (NYSE:HUN): Up 5.6% (90 cents) to $17.09

Three Down

• Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN): Down 7.7% ($9.29) to $111.51.
• Dendreon (NASDAQ:DNDN): Down 5.8% (26 cents) to $4.21.
• Entergy (NYSE:ETR): Down 4.5% ($3.21) to $68.02.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor for InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL and TWC.