NEW YORK — A leader in the U.S. stock market’s lengthy climb, technology’s role in the rally will soon be tested, with Intel Corp.’s results expected to shed light on the industry at large going into the holiday shopping season.
“Tech needs to confirm, period,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
Investors on Tuesday will hear third-quarter financials from Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company, kicking off the technology earnings season, with rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. scheduled to report two days later.
Both companies are expected to benefit from an improving consumer PC market, and an anticipated increase in corporate demand.
“Corporate spending on network upgrades has been reduced over the last two years, so there is pent-up server demand, which should expand in the next six to 12 months, which is good for Intel’s top line, but whether that will be reflected in this quarter’s results, I’m not sure,” said Andrew Neale, portfolio manager at Fogel Neale Partners.
In addition to AMD, IBM Corp. is also slated to report earnings next Thursday, with Big Blue’s earnings expected to rise and sales expected to decline slightly from a year ago.
“In the end, companies will need to sell those goods to consumers. The fourth quarter will be all about the consumer (but) not necessarily the third quarter,” said Pado in a research note.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78.07 points, or 0.8 percent, to 9,864.94, its highest level so far this year, leaving the blue chips with a weekly rise of 4 percent. IBM proved by far the Dow’s biggest advancer, its shares finishing at $125.93, up 3.6 percent.
The S&P 500 Index gained 6.01 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,071.49, up 4.5 percent from the week-ago close, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index added 15.35 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,139.28, a weekly gain of 4.5 percent.
The third quarter, according to Pado, represents the transition from manufacturing and shipping for the holidays, and finally, selling to consumers.
“This early in the process, we are seeing confirmation that the season won’t be as bad as many fear, even if it isn’t as great as many had hoped,” he wrote.
The release of Windows 7 later this month “will cause an upgrade cycle on the consumer side. There are a lot of outdated computers running on Windows, so the upgrade should cause consumers to upgrade 4- and 5-year-old PCs,” said Neale.
After Thursday’s market close, online search giant Google Inc. will report its quarterly results, with the company expected to reap the benefits from a preference for online search advertising during the downturn.
On Friday, information-technology shares fronted gains as the major indexes capped off a solid week.
