A train wreck at Qualcomm (QCOM)

Wall Street needed some help in the tech sector after a cruel and brutal sell-down today. The champion was going to have to be big handset chip company Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM).

It was not to be. The minute Qualcomm reported earnings, the stock sold off 9%.

The company posted revenue of $2.31 billion, up 15% year-over-year and down 1% sequentially. Diluted earnings per share were $0.67, up 86% year-over-year and 43% sequentially.

What appears to have upset investors was guidance. For the next quarter, revenue is expected to grow 14% to 19% to $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion. EPS is expected to rise 11% to 16%. The company also performed one of its periodic audits of the royalties payable by licensees. "Based on this new information, we now estimate shipments of 89 million handsets reported in our fourth quarter fiscal 2007, compared to our previous estimate of 92 million handsets," the earnings release said.

The guidance and little surprise seemed to be more than shareholders could stomach.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.