It’s good news for tech tomorrow. Intel reported one of the most profitable quarters in its history! Intel said its fourth-quarter profit surged nearly 10-fold from the depressed year-earlier period, as revenue jumped 28%. Intel’s gross profit margin hit an all-time record — 65%!

Intel’s results also included a 42% jump in microprocessor sales by its data center group, which means that corporate server system purchases are also going up.

“We started the year in one of the deepest recessions in our history and emerged from it with better products and technology driving new demand for computing world-wide,” said Paul Otellini, Intel’s chief executive officer, during a conference call with analysts.

For the quarter ended Dec. 26, Intel reported income of $2.28 billion, or 40 cents a share, compared with profit in the year-earlier period of $234 million, or four cents. Revenue rose to $10.57 billion from $8.23 billion. Analysts expected 30 cents per share earnings on the sales of $10.17 billion.

Related Link: Intel outlook points to PC Industry recovery

No more speculation about what Goldman Sachs would earn. No more arguments about whether Citibank is going to really turnaround. We will get the Q1 results of major companies this week. The results will tell us whether the banks are really profitable and the real status of U.S. economy.

• Goldman Sachs (GS) will report the earnings tomorrow, April 14th, before market
• JP Morgan Chase (JPM) will report on April 16th, before market
• Citigroup (C) will report on April 17th, before market
• General Electric (GE) will report on April 17th, before market
• Intel Corp (INTC) will report tomorrow, April 14th, after market
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will report tomorrow, April 14th, before market

The earnings will tell us the true story. If all the above companies report good earnings for Q1, the market is going to rally. Be ready for the wild ride,  it can go in either direction!

Just when you think we are out of the woods, something else comes up. Today started with lot of bad news. Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) forecast that economic output would shrink 1.4 percent this quarter for the developed countries and keep contracting until the middle of next year. OECD’s report can be found here. Economic activity is expected to fall by 0.9 percent in the US next year, by 0.5 percent in the Euro area and by 0.1 percent in Japan as OECD countries enter a protracted slowdown, according to latest projections.

The number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits has jumped to a level not seen since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as companies cut more jobs. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims last week increased by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000. It’s much higher than what analysts expected. So, the stock market is falling again today.

Last week, Cisco systems warned about declining orders. Today, Intel warned about the same and slashed more than $1 billion from its sales forecast and dialed its profit expectations way back. Intel’s profit is being hurt badly. The company’s closely watched gross profit margin will now come in around 55 % of revenue versus the previous guidance of 59 %. If this is not enough to discourage the investors, Walmart also trimmed its earning outlook because of global economic crisis.

Another gloomy data today showed that foreclosure rate is up 25 % year over a year. We wrote about real estate slowdown few days ago. Today’s data reinforces our point of view. It’s going to get uglier before the situation can turn around.

Few hours ago, George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management, said “a deep recession is now inevitable and the possibility of a depression cannot be ruled out.” Ok, there you have it. Just watch your expenses and increase your savings.