Tech Rebound? If Only, Sigh Executives

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This earnings season has certainly thrown up plenty of positive results from tech firms desperate to see an end to the global economic slowdown, although it would be foolish to suggest that the sector is poised for a sudden rebound.

Despite recent Nasdaq gains, positive signs in the chip market and recent bullish comments from Dell(DELL Quote) CEO Michael Dell, it is way too early to call a tech upswing.

Take Intel(INTC Quote) rival Texas Instruments(TXN Quote). Although the firm improved both sales and profitability during the second quarter, CFO Kevin March tempered his enthusiasm.

"Our belief is that we're probably nearing the bottom of this decline in the economy, but it will be difficult to see what will start the growth," he told TheStreet.com during a phone interview. "We're not saying that the economy is growing yet, because we don't see it."

March pointed to broader trends in the economy where upbeat housing data have been offset by the jobless rates.

"Look at the high unemployment levels -- there will be growth, but my concern is that it will be very, very slow," he said.

The U.S. unemployment rate reached 9.5% in June, its highest level since 1983, which hardly bodes well for sales of PCs and other consumer goods. Microsoft(MSFT Quote), for example, recently suffered its first ever quarter of declining sales of its Windows operating systems, casting a long shadow over a tech sector boosted by good results from IBM(IBM Quote) and Google(GOOG Quote).

Even Michael Dell, who talked extensively about a rebound during the firm's recent analyst day, says that IT spending will not return until 2010. The CEO predicted that customers will refresh their storage and servers first, followed by client devices such as PCs.