Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp. are expected to report fourth-quarter results this week that will likely top their recently increased guidance as holiday sales of personal computers were not as grim as most had expected, analysts said.
The two, longtime rivals in microprocessors that are the brains of personal computers, raised their quarterly guidance on Dec. 6, with Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, noting that it was having difficulty shipping enough Pentium 4 chips to customers amid stronger-than-expected demand.
The fourth quarter, paced by holiday sales, is typically the industry's strongest. Revenues in the first quarter usually decline slightly on a sequential basis, although some analysts are forecasting Intel's revenues to be flat to slightly up in the current quarter.
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