This definitely caught me by surprise. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), up over 6% (as of this writing) on first-quarter results, with huge volume backing the surge. On a Friday. Really?

Believe it, because it's true. Net sales may have declined 14%, and diluted earnings per share, which came in at 40 cents, may have also dipped 17%, but it didn't matter. According to Reuters, the bottom line beat the estimate of 32 cents by a wide margin. Also, it was reported that the top line went beyond the expected number. This was probably even more important than the profit performance. In addition, cash from operations experienced a super boost.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) will be reporting Q3 data after the bell today. Is the market excited over the Internet portal's prospects? Well, judging by the price action I'm seeing on my screen right now, I'd have to say the answer is a definite no. The stock is down 1.7% as I write this in early afternoon trading.

According to Earnings.com, Yahoo!, whose colleagues include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), is expected to say it made 7 cents per share in the third quarter. That won't be so great, since it will represent an earnings decline compared to last year's income stat. Of course, we should remember that it won't be just about the earnings per share. We'll have to hear what management has to say about future prospects.

You've heard of the Monday blues, right? Monday is a depressing day, while Friday is supposed to be the best day of the week. Unfortunately, that's not the case with chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD). The stock closed down over 7% on extremely high volume.

According to Reuters coverage, AMD, which issued results yesterday after the bell, beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines. In fact, the bottom line was particularly impressive. AMD lost 18 cents per share. The belief was that the company would lose as much as 42 cents per share.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) increased both sales and income in the third quarter. The giant of online search, which issued its earnings release after the bell on Thursday, is saying what a plethora of companies are also saying: the worst of the economic downturn may finally be over.

According to TheStreet.com, sales, after traffic acquisition costs are taken into account, rose about 8%. On an adjusted basis, profit grew almost 20% to $5.89 per share. Our earnings preview article stated that expectations were for $5.38 per share. Google did a good job of giving the world a reason to believe that the rallies seen in the major market indexes should be taken seriously.

International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) reported Q3 results after the bell on Thursday. Net sales decreased 7% when compared to the year-ago period. Okay, that doesn't sound like a great start. Wait, though, because things are about to get better from here.

Sales actually increased 1% on a sequential basis. Net profit on a dollar basis went up 14%. Net margin improved. And on a per-share basis, net income jumped 18% to $2.40. According to our earnings preview, this was two pennies ahead of analyst projections.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is getting ready to release third-quarter numbers. They will be divulged on Tuesday, October 13, after the bell. What should investors expect?

Maybe some good stuff. At least, you might get that idea by looking at this corporate press release from the latter part of August. The document has the kind of title that shareholders love. The kind that talks about raised guidance for both revenue and gross margin. As we all know, Intel really watches the gross margin, so whenever there is good news on that front, it most certainly is a welcome sight.

IT specialist Infosys Technologies (NASDAQ: INFY) issued Q2 earnings earlier today. According to Briefing.com, the numbers were pretty good in terms of beating estimates. Unfortunately, the market doesn't seem to like them.

Infosys made 56 cents per American Depositary Share. The call was for 50 cents. Net sales were $1.15 billion, slightly higher than projections on Wall Street. That sounds okay, right? We even had an outlook that was better than expected, too. Everything appears to have fallen in place for Infosys.

As I write this, shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are down well over 3% to $24.83. That's a drop of 89 cents per share. The catalyst? A downgrade from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).

According to Bloomberg, the institution removed the software giant from its conviction buy list. There's concern that the first quarter won't be overwhelmingly positive. Understandably, Wall Street got a little nervous and decided to book some profits. Microsoft has had a decent run as of late.

Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL), a provider of solutions to the electronics industry, as well as a business that counts Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) as a colleague, has been in an uptrend. If you check out a year-to-date chart for the company's stock, you'll understand what I mean. And frankly, I admit that I've been too bearish on this situation. When I pontificated on Jabil's Q3 results, I didn't think the company was a strong idea. Well, it's gone up since then.

So, what should we make of the Q4 results, which were reported Tuesday after the bell? Again, we see big declines. Net sales dropped 15%, and earnings per diluted share on an adjusted basis plunged to 16 cents from the 30 cents seen in the year-ago period.

"At 12 times trailing earnings, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) trades at a 21% discount to its three-year average valuation and looks cheaper than other U.S. computer giants," says blue chip advisor Richard Moroney.

In Dow Theory Forecast -- a newsletter that has been published for over 5 decades -- he looks at the firm's diversified position and the reasons behind his "long-term buy" rating on the shares.

"For a company that chose its name via a coin toss, Hewlett-Packard takes a deliberate approach to dealing with trouble; its founders designed their first factory so it could be turned into a grocery store if the technology business failed to grow.

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), a software business whose colleagues include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), reported Q2 numbers yesterday after the bell. Today, shares are up quite spectacularly. What's driving all the buying interest?

Well, the results were worthy of praise. Net sales increased 12%. Subscriptions were higher by 15%. Adjusted income, including the elimination of a tax benefit from the total, was 16 cents per share. According to Earnings.com, the market was looking for 15 cents per share. So, we've got the typical beat-by-a-proverbial-penny situation on our hands. I'd rather it be more than a penny, but I'll take it.

National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday after the bell. Net sales came in at $314 million, and net income was 13 cents per diluted share. According to our earnings preview, that 13-cent profit beat analyst expectations by a whopping six pennies. I'll tell you, I always enjoy when a company can beat by a little more than the boring penny. The top line also went beyond projections. The call was for roughly $300 million in sales.

Although these numbers represented steep drops when compared to year-ago data, it should be noted that, on a sequential basis, National Semiconductor showed significant improvement. Gross margin went up sequentially on better product mix and a benefit from a plant closing in China.

"My mantra for investing in this dicey market is to focus on three non-negotiable demands: very solid balance sheet; large, installed customer base; steady cash flows; and dividends," says Jack Adamo.

In his Insiders Plus newsletter he looks at a technology stock that meets his criteria: Sybase (NYSE: SY). He notes, "Overall, this is a company I'm comfortable owning, even in a bad ongoing recession."

The advisor explains, "Sybase is an industry leader in software to manage, analyze and distribute information in the most data-intensive enterprises, such as financial services, telecoms, manufacturing and government.

"To put it concisely: It manages data and makes it available to the many different devices that use it, across the myriad communication protocols that must be traversed to accomplish that.

Paul McWilliams is well-known for his in-depth and sophisticated analysis of tech stocks in his Next Inning newsletter.

In addition to corporate metrics, he places strong emphasis on superior management. Regarding integrated circuit manufacturer Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI), he notes, "CEO Jerald Fishman really knows how to run a company."

"The numbers posted by Analog Devices and the guidance provided for its fiscal fourth fiscal quarter of 2009 (ends October 2009) were both impressive. And, when taken together, exceeded my expectations.

"As I had expected, there was an inventory adjustment that resulted in a sequential decline in excess of 18% in its shipments to Chinese wireless infrastructure suppliers.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), a PC maker that competes with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Apple (NASDAQ: APPL), received an upgrade on Monday. According to Marketwatch, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech is bullish on the company because of the possibility that corporations will perceive a need to invest in technologies to replace older systems. The analyst thinks Dell shares are a buy.

Well, Dell's stock sure has experienced a high amount of momentum this year, no question about it. The market is clearly discounting an end to the recession. If such an event is essentially in place, then it's easy to see why investors would buy Dell. Not only will businesses put cash to work to make their operations more competitively efficient, but consumers will likewise get out there and replace the laptops/desktops/printers/whatever that they've held onto for longer than usual because the effect of declining Wall Street indexes made them fearful of any big-ticket purchases. Dell should theoretically benefit from a macro recovery, since the company's brand still resonates with the PC-buying crowd.