Quarter Ends With a Thud

The action comes a day after the market closed little changed after a policy meeting of the Fed. Officials kept rates unchanged, as expected, and tempered their view on inflation, but on the whole the central bank offered few surprises.

On the corporate side, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM Quote) easily exceeded analysts' first-quarter earnings expectations. Bank of America and JMP Securities both upgraded the company, which saw its shares soar 20.8% to $199.99.

Things weren't as rosy at Palm (PALM Quote), which got a Deutsche Bank downgrade to sell after the company's outlook for its fiscal first quarter was weaker than analysts had been anticipating. Palm's stock dropped 54 cents, or 3.3%, to close at $16.01.

New smartphone rival Apple (AAPL Quote) climbed 1.2% ahead of the 6 p.m. EDT debut of its much-lauded iPhone. Meanwhile, iPhone's service carrier AT&T (T Quote) rose 1.9%.

Commerce Bancorp (CBH Quote) shares jumped on news that its founder and CEO, Vernon Hill, has departed amid scrutiny of real estate transactions and insider relationships. Shares of the banking outfit jumped $3.18, or 9.4%, to $36.99.

Overseas, stocks were mixed. Tokyo's Nikkei was up 1.2%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.8%.

In London, the FTSE initially eased after police defused a car bomb that was found in the city's theater district and opened a terrorism probe, but the index rebounded and rose 0.6%. Frankfurt's DAX jumped 1.1%.