Ahead of the Bell: Intel earnings report

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Intel Corp.'s second-quarter results, scheduled for after the market closes Tuesday, will help illuminate how the personal computer industry is holding up in the recession amid some mixed signals about its health.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is the world's biggest supplier of PC microprocessors, the electronic brains of the machines.

Last quarter Intel predicted the PC market had "bottomed out" from its worst slump in six years. The semiconductor market as a whole though continues to suffer.

The Semiconductor Industry Association predicts a 21 percent decline in worldwide chip sales to $195.6 billion this year. The industry trade group thinks sales will start to rebound in 2010.

Intel is expected to have earned 8 cents per share in the April-June quarter, according to the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. In the same period last year, it earned 28 cents per share.

Sales are expected to have fallen 23 percent over last year to $7.28 billion in sales, according to the analyst estimate.

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