Palm Hands Wall Street Solid Results

Shares of Palm gained 6% in late trading Thursday after the company beat Wall Street estimates and raised guidance.

Riding strong Treo smartphone sales, Palm said it earned 19 cents a share in its quarter ended March 3, three cents ahead of estimates. Sales rose 36% to $388.5 million, above $374.7 million forecasts. Palm also raised June quarter guidance.

It’s not clear how much Palm benefited from Research In Motion’s long-running patent troubles that were finally settled earlier this month, but as if to anticipate the question, RIM announced five minutes before Palm’s results hit the wires that it would release its results April 6. RIM pre-announced disappointing results when it announced the patent settlement with NTP on March 3.

Also after the close, Google jumped on news that it will be added to the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Friday.

The broader market sagged under the weight of strong home sales and weekly jobless claims reports and a rise in oil prices and interest rates.

The Nasdaq slipped 3 to 2300, the S&P 500 lost 3 to 1301, and the Dow fell 47 to 11,270. Volume declined to 1.98 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.02 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 16-15 on the NYSE, while advancers led 16-14 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 53% on the NYSE, and 52% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 131-32 on the NYSE, and 144-31 on the Nasdaq.

Microsoft slipped 1% on a shakeup following its Vista operating system delay.

Jabil , Xyratex and GigaMedia soared on their results, while Adobe slipped after beating earnings and sales estimates but lowering guidance.

Yahoo , Earthlink and Level 3 gained on upgrades.

Pomeroy fell 14% after delaying its annual report.