Yahoo, Amazon.com and Texas Instruments Continue The Technology Earnings Parade

Investors will get a further glimpse of how well technology companies are faring in the weakening global economy, however, further job cuts and continuing concerns over the credit crisis will likely take center stage. So far, technology companies have given investors a mixed picture of their fourth-quarter. Apple Inc.
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reported better-than-expected results, while Microsoft
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reported results that missed the Street and announced 5,000 job cuts.

Yahoo! Inc.
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is expected to release its quarterly results after the close of trading on Tuesday, and analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are expecting the company to report a profit decline of 13.3% to $0.13 per share on revenue of $1.37 billion. Yahoo shares have been quite volatile over the past few weeks as the company has named a new CEO and cut 1,500 jobs last month. The company’s bigger rival, Google Inc.
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reported revenue that just beat analyst estimates and profit that tumbled from a year ago on employee stock compensation costs and the charges on its deteriorating investments. Investors looking to trade into earnings should know that Yahoo shares have a tendency to narrow their after-hours move in the following regular trading session, doing so in three of the past four quarters.

On Thursday, Amazon.com
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is expected to report results after the close of trading, and analysts expect the company to post a profit decline of 19% to $0.39 per share on revenue of $6.4 billion. Amazon shares frequently widen their after-hours moves in the following regular session, doing so in 15 of its last 20 after-hours earnings events. However, the near-term pattern is mixed, crossing two widening and two narrowing trades in its last four quarters. Last quarter, the stock dropped 13.6% in after-hours trading after the company cut its outlook for the year. The stock reversed direction the following trading day, ending up 0.6%.

Cassie Slane is a Senior Editor at www.MidnightTrader.com.