Intel, Yahoo Ease Slowdown Fears

Fears of an economic slowdown eased on Tuesday after a number of top tech companies reported strong earnings.

Intel beat estimates soundly after the bell, with earnings of 34 cents a share on sales of $9.4 billion, driven by strong mobile chip sales. Gross margins of 59% also topped forecasts. The chip giant’s second quarter revenue guidance of $8.6-$9.2 billion compared favorably to $8.91 billion estimates, and the company had a pleasant surprise for chip equipment makers, raising its capital spending outlook to $5.4-$5.8 billion from $4.9-$5.3 billion.

Shares of Intel rose 3% after hours.

Yahoo also got a boost after hours, beating estimates with 13-cent earnings and $821 million net revenues. That was good for a 5% gain after hours, and Google also rose on Yahoo’s strong search revenues. Juniper also topped forecasts.

Stocks rose during the day on strong results from Texas Instruments , EMC and Lucent , and a tame wholesale inflation report also helped.

The Nasdaq surged 19 to 1932, the S&P 500 gained 6 to 1152, and the Dow climbed 56 to 10,127. Volume declined to 2.13 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.86 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 24-8 on the NYSE, and 21-9 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 74% on the NYSE, and 77% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 18-67 on the NYSE, and 29-116 on the Nasdaq.

Texas Instruments, EMC and Lucent surged on their earnings reports.

ADC Telecom , Adtran , Sybase , Sonus and CDW rose on their results, while Novellus , Lionbridge and J2 Global finished lower on their reports.