Monday: Motorola, Advanced Micro Devices Report Strong Earnings

Compiled by John J. Edwards III
Staff Reporter

The rally in tech stocks continued Monday and might get a further lift from the first of the evening's post-close tidbits:

Motorola

(MOT)

shares reportedly leapt in after-hours trading on the strength of the company's first-quarter earnings, which came in at 53 cents per share. That was down from the year-ago 63 cents but well ahead of the

First Call

consensus expectation, 45 cents.

Also surprising Wall Street on the upside was

Advanced Micro Devices

(AMD) - Get Report

, which reported first-quarter earnings of 9 cents per share. As with Motorola, the results were down from a year earlier, when the company made 18 cents. But AMD blew past the First Call estimate of a 2-cent loss.

Would-be merger partners

Staples

(SPLS)

and

Office Depot

(ODP) - Get Report

are ready to rumble with the

Federal Trade Commission

. The office-supply superstore companies said they will go to court to fight the FTC's attempt to block their $4 billion union.

Lawyers for several tobacco companies agreed to the release of seven

Liggett

documents said to contain information on the dangers of nicotine. Liggett, a unit of

Brooke Group

(BGL)

, is the rogue cigarette pusher that last month promised to turn over key documents in a settlement of a suit brought by 22 state attorneys general.

Seattle's

Redhook Ale Brewery

(HOOK) - Get Report

previewed less-than-frothy first-quarter results, saying it expects to report an unspecified loss. First Call was looking for a profit of 1 cent per share versus the year-ago 10 cents.