Gateway Beats The Street

Gateway rose 5% after the close on Thursday after the company reported a surprise profit.

Gateway said it earned a penny a share in the third quarter, 8 cents better than Wall Street analysts were expecting. Revenues climbed 3.6% to $915 million, under $939.5 million forecasts. For the fourth quarter, Gateway said it expects earnings of 1-2 cents a share, above expectations for a 1-cent loss, on revenues of $975 million to $1.03 billion, less than analysts’ $1.09 billion estimates.

The company reported an increase in PC shipments, but said it expects a decline in its professional business in the fourth quarter.

Also after the close, DoubleClick dropped 7% on its results. McAfee surged after beating estimates. LookSmart , Open Text , Ascential , NetGear , Ingram Micro , SafeNet , Radisys and GSI Lumonics beat estimates. S1 met estimates, Adaptec beat earnings estimates but missed revenue estimates, Sanmina and Brightpoint missed, and recent IPO WebSideStory reported a 41% jump in sales.

Stocks were mixed during the day, as another big drop in oil prices was overshadowed by China’s first interest rate hike in nine years. Third-quarter GDP will be reported Friday morning, and economists are expecting a 4.3% growth rate for the quarter.

The Nasdaq rose 5 to 1975, the S&P 500 gained 2 to 1127, and the Dow added 2 to 10,004. Volume declined to 1.63 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.82 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 17-15 on the NYSE, and 16-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 53% on the NYSE, and 59% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 191-29 on the NYSE, and 137-42 on the Nasdaq.

Ask Jeeves plunged 24% after meeting estimates but warning. Google gained 4% on news that most of Ask Jeeves’ revenue in the quarter came from Google.

JDS Uniphase fell 10% on a warning.

Ariba soared 20% after the company beat earnings estimates, and Quest and Cabot Micro gained 5% each on their results.

Verizon , Sierra Wireless , SonicWall , Akamai , LSI Logic and ESS Tech fell on their results, while Photon ended the day unchanged.