Shares of Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) fell in after-hours trading Thursday on a quarterly earnings report that wasn't quite as strong as Wall Street analysts were hoping for.

RIM's adjusted earnings of 98 cents a share were four cents better than analysts expected, and a 53% jump in sales to $3.42 billion was in line with estimates. But RIM's 3.8 million new subscribers was just below expectations.

The company's outlook also wasn't as strong as analysts had hoped. RIM said it expects current quarter sales of $3.45-$3.7 billion and earnings of 94 cents to $1.03 a share. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 97 cents on sales of $3.59 billion, according to Thomson Reuters, giving the company room to disappoint.

The results offer some evidence that competitors Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) may be gaining ground on the smartphone leader.

RIM shares fell 5% in after-hours trading.

Blue chip stocks rose during the day on better than expected readings of Mid-Atlantic manufacturing and leading economic indicators, but tech stocks were flat ahead of RIM's report.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) added 2% on a deal with HP (NYSE: HPQ).

The Nasdaq slipped a fraction to 1807, the S&P 500 added 7 to 918, and the Dow rose 58 to 8555. Volume fell to 4.69 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.12 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 21-15 margin on the NYSE, and 14-12 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 63% on the NYSE, and 39% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 15-40 on the NYSE, and 24-11 on the Nasdaq.

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