• Austin American-Statesman, Friday, August 28, 2009 10:28 AM

Dell inadvertently released its earnings report 10 minutes before the closing bell on Wall Street yesterday and, despite a 22% drop in revenue for the same quarter last year, its stock price shot up by 6.7% and gained another 3% in after-hours trading, Kirk Ladendorf reports. Which should tell you something -- and it does, according to Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar.

"The fundamental recovery is going to be more U-shaped, and Dell can't sidestep the macro headwinds," he says. "Wall Street will view these results positively, without qualification." Huh? Well, let's put it this way: Dell did better than analysts expected.

The company continues to cut cost and revamp its product line, according to CEO Michael Dell. "If current demand trends continue, we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half," he said in a statement. But the company cautioned that the corporate market won't really pick up steam until next year.

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