AMD, Yahoo See Tough Times Ahead

AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) reported first-quarter earnings that were in line with Wall Street expectations, but both said they expect the second quarter to be another tough one for the economy.

AMD’s quarterly loss matched expectations, while the company’s sales of $1.18 billion were down 21% from the year-ago quarter but better than expected. But the company said it expects lower second-quarter sales, and that visibility remains difficult.

Yahoo posted in-line earnings of 8 cents a share and sales after traffic acquisition costs of $1.16 billion, just below estimates. But the company’s current quarter sales guidance was potentially below Wall Street forecasts.

AMD shares fell 6% in after-hours trading, while Yahoo shares added 3% after a 5% gain ahead of the report.

Also after the close, SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) shares jumped 10% after the company beat estimates.

Stocks rose during the day after another round of corporate earnings reports that weren’t as bad as feared and reassuring comments about banks stocks from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Emulex (NYSE: ELX) was the day’s standout, soaring 47% on a hostile takeover bid from Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM). The news boosted shares of Emulex competitor QLogic (NASDAQ: QLGC).

IBM (NYSE: IBM) gained 1.9%, as better than expected earnings outweighed lower than expected revenues.

But Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) slipped 1.2% despite stronger than anticipated results and guidance, as weak wireless sales weighed on the stock.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) will report their quarterly results on Wednesday, and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), EMC (NYSE: EMC), Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will follow on Thursday.

The Nasdaq rose 35 to 1643, the S&P 500 added 17 to 850, and the Dow gained 127 to 7969. Volume rose to 9.07 billion shares on the NYSE, and declined to 2.48 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 28-8 margin on the NYSE, and 20-7 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 87% on the NYSE, and 80% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 9-45 on the NYSE, and 9-24 on the Nasdaq.