AMD, IBM and Google Beat the Street

AMD (NYSE: AMD), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) provided fresh evidence of a recovery in tech spending late today after all three reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street forecasts.

Google reported earnings of $5.89 a share, 47 cents better than the Thomson Reuters forecast, and net sales of $4.38 billion were also well ahead of expectations. The company said the worst of the recession is over, and its shares rose 3 percent in after-hours trading.

AMD’s results were also strong, with a much better than expected pro forma loss of 26 cents a share on a 22 percent sales decline to $1.4 billion. AMD shares fell 3 percent on the news, however.

IBM’s earnings of $2.40 a share and sales of $23.6 billion both topped forecasts, and the company raised its earnings guidance, but its shares slumped 3 percent in after-hours trading after services signings were less than expected.

Stocks edged modestly higher ahead of the key earnings reports, a day after Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) strong earnings report sent the Dow past 10,000 for the first time in more than a year.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) tumbled 11 percent on its results.

Next week will see earnings reports from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) on Monday, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) on Tuesday, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) on Wednesday, EMC (NYSE: EMC) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) on Thursday, and a rare Friday morning report from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

The Nasdaq added 1 to 2173, the S&P 500 gained 4 to 1096, and the Dow rose 47 to 10,062. Volume declined to 5.37 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.2 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 19-18 margin on the NYSE, while decliners held a 15-11 edge on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 52 percent on the NYSE, and 42 percent on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 554-61 on the NYSE, and 173-12 on the Nasdaq.