Shares of Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) jumped in after-hours trading today after both companies reported stronger than expected quarterly results.
RIM shares were up 12 percent in late trading after the BlackBerry maker reported a 40 percent jump in sales to $3.92 billion and earnings of $1.10 a share, both well ahead of the Thomson Reuters forecast. RIM also raised its current quarter guidance.
And Oracle gained 4 percent after the company reported 4 percent sales growth to $5.86 billion, better than the flat sales analysts expected. Earnings of 39 cents a share were 3 cents above forecasts.
But Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) shares slipped after the company reported a wider than expected loss, even though sales were much stronger than anticipated. Accenture (NYSE: ACN) shares were also down in late trading after the company missed revenue estimates.
Stocks plunged during the day on renewed worries about the financial sector and disappointing results from FedEx (NYSE: FDX).
Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC) was a big gainer, up 19 percent after raising $30 million.
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) managed to buck the downtrend with small gains. Dell gained after UBS raised estimates on the company.
The Nasdaq fell 26 to 2180, the S&P 500 lost 13 to 1096, and the Dow tumbled 132 to 10,308. Volume soared to 7.62 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 1.95 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 27-10 margin on the NYSE, and 19-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 88 percent on the NYSE, and 77 percent on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 157-38 on the NYSE, and 67-33 on the Nasdaq.