Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) recently announced that the pay cuts it had initiated in January this year would be reinstated in December. Hourly workers had suffered pay cuts of up to 5%, while executives at higher rungs took bigger cuts of up to 20%.

The company expected the job cuts and rationalization of pay to help it deal with recessionary pressures that were hurting its already unprofitable business.

In March, the company signed a deal with an Abu Dhabi state-sponsored financial institution that brought in some cash, enabled it to operate in a fabless model and improved its chances of achieving profitability in the near term.

CEO Dirk Meyer said that the company’s new product lineup and the strengthening economy were the reasons for the increased confidence. He expressed optimism regarding the company’s achieving profitability by year-end.

Some analysts expect the company to benefit from Hewlett Packard Co.’s

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Six Dow components are scheduled to report as large-cap stocks dominate the first big week of earnings season. The 6 companies are Bank of America (...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 6, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Rackable Systems (RACK), Silicon Graphics (SGIC), Applied Materials (AMAT), ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) and Kimco Realty (KIM).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

RACK to Acquire SGIC

RACK to Acquire SGIC (RACK $3.99, Zacks recommendation: Hold, target price $4.50) has announced that it will acquire Silicon Graphics (SGIC) for about $25 million, plus the assumption of certain liabilities (amount not disclosed).

RACK will

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Market research firm VLSI Research recently compiled its list of the top semiconductor equipment suppliers. Applied Materials (AMAT) once again held the top spot. Maybe more interesting though was the leap ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) had as it overtook Tokyo Electron (TEL) for the second spot. The main reason was lithography.

Immersion lithography permits the ion beam to be more precisely controlled during the formation process, resulting in smaller design geometries or line resolutions. This is accomplished by using water rather than "dry" air between the wafer and hyper-NA (numerical aperture) lenses, thus improving the depth of focus and the extension of wavelengths to lower nodes. Because of the lenses, the same light sources used in 193nm lithography systems can be used down to the 45nm node.

Maskless lithography is an alternative to using costly masks that take time to design and manufacture. The company outsources the

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