Specialty retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc (NYSE: PIR) reported first quarter financial results after the close last night -- although I am not sure investors would call what they reported "results." The company reported a net loss of 64 cents, well below the consensus, in addition to drops in comparable-store sales, total sales and merchandise margins.

Despite a string of poor fundamental results, the stock has seen some signs of life this year. The reason: pure takeover speculation. But after seeing quarter after quarter of dismal results, is anyone -- even cash-rich private equity -- going to bite? My thought is that if they were, they would have done it when the stock was below $6 a share. Now, even after a 3% drop today, the stock is trading above $8.

I'm sure somebody, somewhere that believes Pier 1 Imports is a good value play, but I would not want to be the one trying to bottomfeed here. There are better value plays and better retail plays to be found elsewhere.

Yesterday's revenue and earnings miss by Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NYSE: AMD) point to how powerful Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is. AMD seriously bypassed Intel, beating it to market with a 64-bit processor. However, Intel, as usual, waited for the market to broadly adopt 64-bit processors and then jumped in with both feet.

AMD announced it expects to report revenue of $1.2 billion in the upcoming quarter, below the $1.5 billion consensus. AMD cited a drop in both ASP and volume as the reasons for the shortfall -- not good.

In Intel's most recently reported quarter, demand for microprocessors was strong. The presumption that AMD with a strong product portfolio and slower PC desktop growth would mean tough times for Intel, appears not to be the case.

Increased demand for notebooks and the use of dual-core processors has created a big uptick in the consumption of microprocessors. While per-unit pricing for dual-core processors is considerably less than the traditional single-core processor, the new fabs that Intel has constructed to manufacture these chips allows Intel to produce product for considerably less and make more money -- a luxury that AMD does not have.

It is time to start getting back into Intel in a big way. AMD, once again, showed a ray of hope that it would be able to compete against the chip giant, but once the market moved full force in its adoption of 64-bit processors and Intel was able to put its capital to work to build state-of-the-art chip fabs, the battle was over.

AMD announced it would be cutting back on capex to avoid a liquidity crunch. This cut in capex is occurring when Intel is just hitting hits stride.

My advice -- Get back into Intel; avoid AMD.

TheFly began warning in early December that poor performance at many of Motorola's (NYSE: MOT) supply chain partners -- Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) -- was likely a sign that Motorola might be set up for an earnings miss.

Late last night Motorola warned revenue and earnings would be lower than estimates. Our take: wait for the market to become oversold and more evidence that the Fed is about to lower rates and then jump in. The next growth phase in wireless will be data and Motorola is well-positioned to participate in this space.

Motorola's miss was more due to a slowing economy and a transition from the mature voice business to data. Motorola, as a company, is in pretty good shape to participate in this transition to wireless data.

When investors' fear picks up due to a slowing economy, jump back into this stock.

Microsoft's third quarter earnings are out as of 10 minutes ago, and revenue is strong - up 13% to $10.9 billion. The big story is the big miss, however; the company earned only $0.32 a share, or $2.98 billion. That's a penny off analyst estimates of $0.33. Revenues were up, they say, thanks to business management and database software sales.

The big question on everyone's minds: what difference will a penny make? Not much, it seems, as MSFT is already up 18 cents in after-hours trading. Update: urggh. Investors not so happy anymore. The tide has reversed and now the stock is down $1.35 since market close to $25.75. More later...

[Photo Ron Wurzer/Getty Images]