Hart aber Fair !

"For me, this is a relief rally more than anything else," said Sean Conner, senior equity analyst, First American Funds in Minneapolis. "The bottom line is that they did better than expected. Gross margins came in better than people were expecting, for both this quarter and in its outlook for the fourth quarter."

Shares of Intel [INTC  15.93     -1.06  (-6.24%)   ] leaped more than 5 percent in late trading after closing Tuesday's regular market hours down 6.24 percent at $15.93.



"As we look to Q4, it is hard to know what impact the financial crisis will have on end customer demand," Chief Executive Paul Otellini said in a statement. He added that he was confident in his company's ability to outpace competitors "at a time when business levels are difficult to predict."

(Accompanying Video: Intel Chief Financial Officer Stacey Smith talks with CNBC's Jim Goldman about Tuesday's earnings report. Intel's revenue range for the fourth quarter is far wider than the range it has offered in quarters past, and that suggests a high degree of uncertainty over what this company is anticipating. By and large, however, Smith remains optimistic about Intel's opportunities.)

Third-quarter net income rose to $2.01 billion, or 35 cents per share, from $1.86 billion, or 31 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 1 percent to $10.2 billion.

Wall Street had been looking for a third-quarter profit, on average, of 34 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.