Stocks fell Tuesday on an unexpected drop in consumer confidence, but Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) shares rose nearly 5% on reports of strong Pre sales.

Charter Equity Research reported that Palm may have sold 300,000 of its new Pre smartphones last month, and a Nielson report showing strong traffic to Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) Web site ahead of the iPhone 3G S launch boosted shares of Apple and Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) too.

AMD (NYSE: AMD), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) and Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) were other gainers, but much of the tech sector ended the day lower. Still, the stock market gained about 15% in its best quarter in a decade.

Emulex (NYSE: ELX) fell 10% despite a higher takeover bid from Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), as traders fear the deal won't get done.

VMware (NYSE: VMW) and EMC (NYSE: EMC) lost about 3% each.

Monthly employment reports from ADP and the U.S. Labor Department will occupy traders the next two days, and the expectation is that the economy continues to shed about 350,000 to 400,000 jobs a month.

The Nasdaq lost 9 to 1835, the S&P 500 fell 8 to 919, and the Dow lost 82 to 8447. Volume rose to 5.08 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.13 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 21-15 margin on the NYSE, and 15-11 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 69% on the NYSE, and 61% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 28-50 on the NYSE, and 31-14 on the Nasdaq.

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