BY Dennis Hobein:

Contributor, Stock Traders Daily

Real Time Trading Reports:  Included are detailed trading reports designed to help investors realize opportunities in these companies.  The reports are linked to the stock symbols in the article below.

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(La Jolla, CA)  The week of Jan. 18 features several highly anticipated earnings reports within the technology space. Following the solid, upside results from semiconductor giant Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), the bar has been set higher for other tech bellwethers. In this article, we highlight the key topics of interest for the world’s most prominent search engine, in addition to providing previews for influential companies in the semiconductor and disk drive spaces.

Google-China Battle The Hot Topic

After the market closes on Jan. 21, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is scheduled to report its Q4 results. The Street is expecting it to report EPS of $6.43 on revenue of $4.89 billion, which would represent y/y growth of 26% and 16%, respectively. Taking a look back at GOOG’s recent earnings history, we see that it has topped EPS consensus estimates for five quarters in a row, with the margin of upside steadily increasing. Another impressive accomplishment for GOOG is that its top-line never declined over this period, which covers the low point of the recession.

Since it has been a very busy few months for GOOG, investors, traders, and analysts will have plenty of topics of interest to concentrate on during the conference call. The typical key metrics for the search business -- market share, cost-per-click, paid clicks -- are always areas of focus because GOOG’s revenue is still primarily derived from this area. The performance of its handset operating system, Android, will also garner much attention. In particular, people will be looking for the company’s expectations for Nexus One, its first handset launch.

However, the one topic on everybody’s minds will be the recent battle it waged against China. The drama began on Jan. 13 when the AP reported that GOOG will stop censoring its search results in China and that it may pull out of the country completely. A day later, China dismissed GOOG’s threats, and showed no signs of compromising. The news has acted as a major catalyst for GOOG’s China-based competitor, Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU), as that stock jumped 13% that day. It will be interesting to hear GOOG’s commentary on this topic, particularly since it just launched a new cell phone and since international sales are already a major portion of revenue at ~53%. To read more about the technical aspects for GOOG and BIDU, click on our free GOOG and free BIDU trading reports.

High Expectations for AMD and WDC

Semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and hard drive maker Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) are also set to report quarterly earnings after the bell on Jan. 21. AMD has a tough act to follow after INTC reported its impressive Q4 results last week. Expectations are clearly high as shares have nearly doubled since the beginning of Nov. The stock hit resistance at the $10 level near the end of Dec., however, and has since settled around the $9 level. AMD is not expected to report a profitable quarter with analysts expected a loss per share of ($0.18) on sales of $1.5 billion. The same tailwinds that were available for INTC should be there for AMD – namely, strengthening demand for PCs/notebooks and leaner inventory.

Since hard drives are just another component of PCs, the story is similar for WDC. That stock has also been on a tear, making a nearly uninterrupted charge higher since last March, up a staggering 254% over this time. The Street is forecasting its EPS and revenue to grow 147% and 33% from last year to $1.36 and $2.4 billion.

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