S&P 500 waves goodbye to Palm

Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that it is removing Palm from its S&P 500 index, as the company's stock price flags. Palm's removal makes room for chemical maker Monsanto, which is being spun off from Pharmacia, another S&P 500 component.

Palm shares fell in after-hours trading. Shares dropped to 90 cents on the Island ECN after closing regular trading at 93 cents, off 3 cents for the day. The company has asked shareholders to approve a reverse stock split to boost the company's stock price and to facilitate its division into two separate hardware and software companies.