Following today's market close, technology giant Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) had its chance to impress Wall Street with its fiscal first quarter results, and the company did not disappoint.

Going into this afternoon's earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see the company show earnings of 31 cents per share, but the company surprised to the upside by posting actual earnings of 36 cents per share for its fiscal first quarter. For the same period last year the company had earnings of 42 cents per share.

For the first half of 2010, almost two thirds of money managers are bullish, according to Barron's. In fact, 54% are bullish, and 5% are "very bullish." Responses suggest that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to gain another 5% by the end of the year.

According to Barron's, "Today's bullish investors see the major stock indexes making steady progress through next June, amid signs the U.S. economy is on the mend after a searing recession."

Paul McWilliams was one of the few to not be surprised by the upside surprises in recent quarterly earnings reports from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), as he has been consistently more bullish than others on Wall Street.

In his Next Inning, the tech stock specialist -- who personally owns a position in the stock -- offers a detailed and in-depth review of the firm's latest results and outlook.

"For the first time in what now seems like at least a year, not a single analyst on the Intel conference call asked about whether netbook sales were 'cannibalizing' notebook sales.

The markets had a relatively flat day to start the week, but there were some big name stocks that traded up to new 52 week highs in today's session. The DOW was up 0.2%, NASDAQ was down 0.01%, while the S&P saw the most change, closing up 0.4%.

Here are a couple of the bigger names that traded up to new 52 week highs in today's trading.

• Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC): Chipmaker Intel Corp. traded up to a new 52 week high today of $20.65. It set its 52 week low of $12.05 back on 2/23/09. The stock is trading higher today ahead of the company's third quarter earnings numbers, which are due out tomorrow following the market close. Analysts are expecting the company to show earnings of 27 cents per share. The company reported a loss of 7 cents per share for its second quarter. The stock closed the day up 1.1% at $20.40, up $0.23 on the day.

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.

Internet giant Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) sent out invitations to 100,000 developers to come in a test the waters of its newest creation, Google Wave.

Unfortunately, for most of us, since the service is being offered on an invitation only basis, we will have to wait a bit longer to see what Google Wave is all about, but it does seem to offer some really nice features that will probably become very popular with internet users.

In the past, it has been the Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) Wii or Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone creating holiday hype -- what product will it be this year?

Quite honestly, none. The tech realm is still looking for the next big holiday hit. This is why it appears that we could be facing a holiday season full of buy-one-get-one-free specials or pushy salespeople trying to get you to allow their company to install the new flat-panel TV or add ons that will help integrate your home entertainment system.

So, what does this mean for electronics retailers?

I thought the idea behind the netbook was for it to be a smaller, cheaper option to a laptop computer. Well, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has decided that it doesn't want to leave out those who prefer to pay a lot for their tech products, announcing that its new Booklet 3G netbook will carry a price tag of $820!

Therein lies the problem that NOK is going to face when selling the new Booklet. The allure of netbooks is that they can provide the power of a computer, without all the bells and whistles. You basically buy a netbook so you can have the internet, and that is about all. No hard drives are included because of the ability of web-based applications, so you have a drive-free way of connecting to the internet.

Late yesterday, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) reported a lower second-quarter profit, thanks to a large drop in sales amid struggles throughout the chip sector. That said, the company did vault higher after its announcement, thanks to its sales forecast.

The chipmaker reported second-quarter earnings of nine cents per share, down from 11 cents per share a year ago. Adjusted quarterly income checked in at 18 cents per share. Quarterly revenue slipped to $640.6 million, which was down from $842.6 million in the second quarter a year ago. Expectations called for earnings of 13 cents per share on revenue of $615 million.

"One way to protect yourself in a difficult market environment is to buy shares in low-risk, blue chip companies; one outstanding examples is Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)," suggest Kuen Chan & David Sandell.

In The Complete Investor, they explain, "The company is safe, strong, and able to grow even in a weak economy. It also has more than $25 billion in cash and equivalents and almost no debt."

"Microsoft is near ubiquitous in the computer world. Some version of its Windows operating system runs on roughly 90% of all personal computers, while its Office Suite programs have more than 550 million users.

Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) posted better-than-expected fiscal third quarter results Tuesday after the close. Still, shares were down close to 5% in after-hours trading as the chipmaker reported lower than expected margins in the quarter.

The company earned 22 cents per share in the quarter, higher than the 20 cents per share analysts had been expecting. In addition, the company also reported higher revenue numbers than the consensus Street's forecasts.

Late Monday, VMware (NYSE: VMW) announced that it will acquire SpringSource, a privately held company. The deal carries a total value of $420 million, which will consist of $362 million in cash and equity along with $58 million in unvested stock and options. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of the year.

The acquisition is believed to have been made in order to help VMW expand its management software in order to work with what is known as cloud computing services. Cloud computing is a service over the Internet where users have an external company run the applications.

"Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), already on our recommended list selection, announced fiscal Q3 earnings after the bell last night that, to no one's surprise, easily topped Wall Street estimates," notes Geoffrey Seiler.

In his Bull Market.com advisory, he reviews the latest earnings report and offers his outlook for the shares -- including a boost to his price target for the stock.

"For the quarter ended June 27th, the company earned $1.23 billion, or $1.35 a share, up 15% from $1.07 billion, or $1.19 a share, a year ago. Analysts were only looking for EPS of $1.17.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the tech industry benefits because the Obama administration pays it little attention.

When you get a streak like technology's had here -- and I am including the Nasdaq as a barometer of tech, with its 11th consecutive positive close -- you have to ask yourself: Is there something going on that's even bigger than the visible themes? I'm talking something beyond low inventories for semis, new product cycles based on Internet mobile, and valuations that got out of hand to the downside.

And I think I have it.

Washington doesn't care about tech. Tech can do what it wants. Tech's not unionized, so Card Check and arbitration, the next battleground, doesn't affect it. Tech doesn't pollute much, so cap-and-trade doesn't mean much. Tech's not much for pensions or for any help from the government with health care. It has virtually no legacies and is largely 401(k).

After the closing bell tolled yesterday afternoon, chipmaker Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR) announced that its profit fell 52% in the second quarter. The chipmaker's profit was pushed lower thanks to falling sales and increasing taxes. During the quarter, ALTR saw net income decrease to 16 cents per share compared to last year's 32 cents per share. While the results fell short of those from a year ago, ALTR managed to match the consensus estimate of 16 cents per share. Revenue dropped to $279.2 million from $359.9 million a year ago - estimates called for $277.6 million in revenue. According to the company, a court ruling increased ALTR's tax costs by four cents per share. The court ruling stemmed from worldwide equity compensation cost sharing, and although the company wasn't involved in the case, it decided to increase its tax responsibilities.