Investors Brace For Super Tuesday

IBM and Yahoo lead a list of big names reporting quarterly results after the close on Tuesday.

Big Blue is expected to earn $1.76 a share, up from $1.56 a year ago, on sales of $27.45 billion. Yahoo, meanwhile, is expected to earn 11 cents a share, a nickel better than a year ago, on revenues of $754.3 million.

Also reporting Tuesday night will be AMD , which warned last week, Motorola , Juniper , Check Point and Rambus , as earnings season swings into high gear.

Wednesday will be another big day for earnings reports, with Lucent reporting before the open and eBay after the bell. Lucent is expected to earn 4 cents a share and eBay 34 cents.

Earnings have been mixed so far this quarter, with companies like Intel and Apple delivering stellar results, while others like AMD, Sun and Verizon have stumbled on disappointing results. As a result, the Nasdaq is off 4% this year even as strong performers have been rewarded, as earnings and inflation worries have dominated trading thus far.

Stocks rebounded Friday after a government report showed that wholesale inflation remained tame in December.

The Nasdaq rose 17 to 2087, the S&P 500 climbed 7 to 1184, and the Dow advanced 52 to 10,558. Volume declined to 1.33 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.06 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 22-11 on the NYSE, and 20-10 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 72% on the NYSE, and 65% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 103-20 on the NYSE, and 64-26 on the Nasdaq.

Sun Microsystems tumbled 8% after the company met earnings estimates with a penny a share profit, but revenues of $2.84 billion came in $100 million below forecasts.

LookSmart and Cree plunged on warnings.

Extended Systems soared 35% after the company said it will turn a profit this quarter.

AskJeeves , CNET and Novell benefited from analyst upgrades.

CNT soared 15% on rumors that it will be acquired by McData .