Apple Shines as Yahoo, AMD Disappoint

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) posted yet another quarter of blow-out results late Tuesday, but Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and AMD (NYSE: AMD) left investors wanting more.

Apple’s earnings of $1.35 a share topped analysts’ forecasts by 18 cents, while sales of $8.34 billion beat $8.2 billion forecasts. Apple issued its usual conservative guidance, but traders bid the company’s shares 4% higher in after-hours trading anyway.

Yahoo’s earnings of 10 cents a share beat estimates by 2 cents, but sales after traffic acquisition costs were a fraction below estimates and the company forecast a sequential drop in current quarter sales and operating income. Yahoo shares lost 2.5% in after-hours trading.

AMD beat sales estimates despite a 13% decline to $1.18 billion, but the company’s shares tumbled 12% on a wider than expected loss.

Also after the close, Seagate (NYSE: STX) edged higher after topping revenue expectations.

The Nasdaq extended its winning streak to 10 during the day, its best run in 12 years, led higher by JDA Software (NASDAQ: JDAS) and NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP). JDA rocketed 34% on its quarterly results, while NetApp gained 5.5% on a ThinkEquity upgrade.

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) slipped 2.3% despite better than expected results, and Lexmark (NYSE: LXK) plunged 20% on its numbers.

The Nasdaq rose 6 to 1916, the S&P 500 gained 3 to 954, and the Dow climbed 67 to 8915. Volume rose to 5.32 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.28 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 20-17 margin on the NYSE, while decliners led 15-11 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 42% on the NYSE, and 57% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 95-81 on the NYSE, and 64-22 on the Nasdaq.