AMD Posts Loss but Beats Expectations

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which specializes in the sale of notebook processors, managed to avoid posting a loss as large as most analysts expected after an unexpectedly strong rally in sales toward the end of the quarter. While AMD’s results helped the struggling company to turn its core chipmaking business profitable, the results were not received well by investors and AMD’s shares dropped.

AMD has posted twelve consecutive quarters of losses, the latest of which resulted in a 5 percent slide in the value of its shares. This follows a 60 percent rally over the past three months as investors began to take stock in the hopes that the technology sector would soon recover after a period of slow performance caused by weak demand and slow consumer spending.

Global chip sales have risen for the sixth consecutive month in August and analysts predict a similar performance for global chip sales in September, signaling recovery that is perhaps caused by holiday sales and the forthcoming release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. Despite today’s slide in the value of its shares, though, AMD is still up 11 percent from the start of last week.

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