The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that after a tough week, the semiconductor industry finally gets some good news.

Will Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) (Cramer's Take) give what TriQuint (NASDAQ: TQNT) (Cramer's Take) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) (Cramer's Take) took away?

Last week, we had the one-two punch of TriQuint and Broadcom really making the whole Internet tsunami look more like a tropical storm. They both talked about withering demand, and Broadcom verified the bears' double-order thesis, but this morning Marvell says that things are on target, there's no wavering and demand is strong. Bears can take their pick.

We have some good news to report in the technology sector. According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), global chip sales jumped 5% in August from the previous month, for a six month run of higher sales.

The Semiconductor Industry Association, which tracks sales, reported that gains were made in every sector. The Americas saw an increase of 5.4%, while the Asia Pacific region increased 5.3%. In terms of raw numbers, the Asia Pacific region accounts for more than half of global sales.

After the closing bell sounded yesterday, Novellus Systems (NASDAQ: NVLS) reported a second-quarter loss, thanks to falling semiconductor sales stemming from general weakness in the semiconductor sector.

The firm reported a second-quarter net loss of 52 cents per share, or 41 cents per share excluding items. Although this loss was three cents wider than the consensus estimate, the shares managed to bounce off their after-hours lows -- thanks mainly to NVLS's forecast.

Earnings season is getting into full swing and semiconductor giant Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) will be in line to tell investors just how well it was able to cope with the current recession tomorrow.

The chip maker is expected to show a sizable drop in earnings, with an expected 2 cents a share for the quarter. This compares with 25 cents a share that it was able to report for its first quarter last year.

One could make the case that this is the riskiest period for stocks, certainly since the late-1960s/early-1970s bear market, and perhaps longer.

The U.S. and global economies are in recession. International trade will likely decline substantially in 2009. And so far, the world hasn't identified which growth engines will replace the U.S. consumer, now the frugal U.S. consumer. This kind of environment sends most investors to the sidelines, but that doesn't mean there aren't bargains to be had for investors who can tolerate moderate risk -- and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is one.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Sean Udall. Sean holds position in RIMM, VMW, SUPX.

• Goldman Sachs upgraded Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM)saying to buy in front of EPS. I couldn't agree more and in fact was going to say that today. Be that as it may, I doubled my RIMM long into yesterday's weakness and plan to hold into/through EPS report. My quick take is that RIMM could have one of the better reports relative to all the negative analyst actions and commentary in tech and the overall market.
  
  
• One of my themes for this upcoming EPS season is to look for stocks that have had the most negative analyst commentary coming into the quarter, as no one these days is looking at things like Price/Sales, Price/Book or Price to normalized earnings.
  
  

Intel's announcement that it plans to freeze senior top executives salaries and revise its option pricing may is another cost-containment step by the company -- but one nevertheless not without some unanswered questions.

That's because although Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) said it would not grant raises to top professionals including CEO Paul Otellini and CFO Stacy Smith, Bloomberg News reported Monday, the proposed action, if approved by shareholders, will also allow employees to exchange underwater stock options for ones with a lower exercise price.

Semiconductor Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) had its turn in the earnings parade this afternoon, and the company put up dismal results that failed to meet analyst expectations.

Going into this afternoon's earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see the company show a loss of $0.09 per share, but the actual EPS for the quarter was a greater loss, one of $0.18 per share.

Can you believe it? The words 'invest,' 'manufacturing,' 'jobs,' and 'U.S.' in the same sentence.

No, it's not a joke. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) announced Tuesday it will invest $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in the United States, supporting about 7,000 jobs.

Intel said the investment will fund the build-out and deployment of the company's 32 nanometer (nm) manufacturing technology, which will be used to build faster, smaller chips that are also more energy-efficient.

Shares of chip maker Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) are selling off today after the company announced that fourth quarter revenues were going to be below (wsj subscription required) an already lowered estimate.

The stock is currently down 6.4% on the day to $14.38 and trading near its intraday low of $14.34 following the announcement that the company is expecting to see revenues for its fourth quarter around the $8.2 billion level. At this level, the quarterly revenues would be 20% lower than its previous quarter, and well below its guidance from November that forecast a 12% dip in the quarter.

Today's news is a clear sign of the troubles that the semiconductor industry is dealing with at this time. Typically, the fourth quarter is the strongest quarter, and as recently as October, Intel had forecast that its fourth quarter sales would actually be higher than its third quarter numbers by around 3%. How quickly things can change.

Semiconductor giant Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC) reported strong third quarter earnings after the market close today, sending shares up nicely in after-hours trading.

Going into this afternoon's earnings announcement, analysts had been expecting to see the chip maker show earnings of 34 cents per share, but the company was able to top analyst estimates by a penny, with a reported 35 cents per share.

The 35 cents that the company showed for its third quarter is not only impressive because it was above analyst estimates, but also because of how much stronger it was on a year over year basis. During the same period last year, the company had earnings of 30 cents per share.

A lot of attention in the market lately has been focused on the credit crunch and subsequent economic slowdown, and many investors have been left wondering if the overall slowdown had also impacted technology. Today's report should calm some of those concerns, but Intel did warn that it could see slowdown in demand in the fourth quarter.

The company stated that a big reason for the better-than-expected numbers were a result of improved gross margins. During its most recent quarter, the company had a gross margin of 58.9%, compared with 51.2% during the same period last year.

All in all, a great quarter for the company, and traders are rewarding the stock in after-hours trading, pushing shares up 4.5% after the news was released.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

"The decline in the price of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is disconcerting, but on balance, not a surprise," says tech guru Paul McWilliams.

Here, in his Next Inning newsletter, the advisor reassesses his forecast for Intel and the tech sector made at the start of the year, and his continued optimism for the stock's future performance.

"In January, I initially concluded that mature global economies were likely going to exhibit slow growth in 2008 and may dip through a recession.

"However, I also had forecast that emerging economies were large enough to where their contributions, even though they would also probably see some slowing in 2008, would keep aggregate growth high enough to avoid any serious worldwide macroeconomic pain.

"My conclusion was that while it is normal to expect spending by governments, businesses, and consumers to follow GDP patterns, there are what I saw then and still see now as good reasons to believe there would be a preference given for tech.

"In other words, my belief was then and still is today that spending on certain tech sectors would hold stronger than normal in the face of aggregate GDP slowing.

This post is part of a report entitled "Six-pack of technology favorites." You can read about the other top tech stock picks here.

"It's time to watch for buying opportunities -- and one of the companies on my personal list is Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), whose shares are in buying range right now," says analyst Glenn Rogers.

The contributing editor to Gordon Pape's Internet Wealth Builder explains, "This semiconductor maker is a good choice for investors who would like to add to their information technology position with shares of a first-class company."

"Broadcom, located in Irvine, California, designs semiconductors for the wired and wireless communications industry. It is a major supplier to Apple's iPhone, which has taken the world by storm this past year.

"Specifically, it powers the brilliant display screen that has captivated users since the launch of the iPhone last year. (Full disclosure: I've just picked up my new 3G iPhone.)

"It also provides the chip that delivers the GPS navigation in the new iPhone. The company holds over 2,000 U.S. and foreign patents and has more than 7,400 pending patent applications.

"But Broadcom is not just an iPhone supplier. It also powers the Motorola TV set top boxes, Netgear wireless routers, Bluetooth and Blu-ray applications, digital television, VOIP, etc. There are lots of chipmakers out there but Broadcom operates in the areas that offer the highest growth potential and the least commoditization in this sector.

"Wall Street has recently been very negative about Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)," notes wireless sector expert Nikhil Hutheesing. In his Forbes Wireless Stock Watch, the advisor explains, "But things may not be as dire as they sounded last month and I think that with expectations down, the company will end up exceeding expectations in the second half of this year."

"One reason Wall Street has been negiative is that TXN's biggest wireless customer, Nokia, announced a fundamental shift, stating it would no longer depend mostly on Texas Instruments for its chips. Ericsson also said it had shifted to a multi-supplier strategy.

"Besides that, in April, at TXN's earnings conference, CEO Rich Templeton talked of a cloudy economy and said that his company had become become more conservative with its outlook for the second quarter.

"Meanwhile, I've spoken with a number of experts in the wireless area who tell me that orders for TI's chips are significantly higher for the second half of this year than they have been in previous years. These orders are even coming from Nokia. (So far, Nokia's muti-supplier strategy has not had an impact on Texas Instruments.)

"The Co-Op of Three," which includes Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) seem to be surviving the economic downturn. According to Businesswire:

Intel Corporation today announced record first-quarter revenue of $9.7 billion, operating income of $2.1 billion, net income of $1.4 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 25 cents.

The earnings helped to propel the stock higher in after hours trading to the point where Intel is flirting with an almost 8% gain since the close of the regular session. The street was happy not to hear another piece of horrifying news and took notice of how well that Intel held up during this difficult economic environment. Even better, margins were up 4% YOY to a whopping 57% for the full 2008 fiscal reporting period. Much of this has to be a result of the key relationship that Intel has with Apple.

Probably one of the greatest technology deals of recent time has got to be the co-op of Apple/Intel/Microsoft. Finally thinking abut the bigger opportunity, these three giants approached the competitive landscape with a resolve to dominate. Since the day Apple's operating system allowed the running of Microsoft's Windows OS, there was no stopping the expansion. Intel's part in all of this was also key. By producing a chip that would help bring these two behemoths together, it has been rising a nice wave of income. No longer does Intel have the same competition as it did only a few years ago.