NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks could be primed for a mixed open Wednesday, after No. 1 chipmaker Intel reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit late Tuesday, but also offered some ho-hum forward-looking guidance.

Intel (INTC: up $0.41 to $17.79, Research, Estimates) is the first major technology corporation to report its results. The firm said it earned 16 cents per share in its fourth quarter, 2 cents better than expected and a penny better than it earned a year earlier. Revenue rose to $7.2 billion from $7.0 billion, when analysts were looking for $6.9 billion.

However, the company also provided guidance for first-quarter sales that could potentially miss analysts' estimates and also said it was scaling back its capital spending this year.

The news seemed to unnerve some of Intel's customers, pushing down shares of chip gear makers such as Applied Materials (AMAT: down $0.04 to $15.36, Research, Estimates) and KLA-Tencor (KLAC: down $0.80 to $39.65, Research, Estimates).

Intel shares initially gained more than 30 cents in after-hours trading, before pulling back to around $17.96, just fractionally above where the stock closed.

"Certainly, it [Intel's report] will set the tone for tomorrow," James Maguire, managing director at LaBranche & Co., told CNNfn's Street Sweep.

Intel's profit report leads off a week heavy on technology reporting.

Wednesday brings Yahoo! and Thursday brings IBM and Microsoft. In addition to expecting these companies to meet or even beat estimates, investors will be listening for signs of a pickup in the overall sector, particularly in orders, both in the United States and overseas.

After the bell Wednesday, Yahoo! (YHOO: up $0.02 to $19.69, Research, Estimates) is expected to report a fourth-quarter profit of 6 cents per share, the same as a year earlier. Late Monday a U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst issued a note saying the company is in good shape to beat estimates, as is online auctioneer eBay.

On Thursday, eBay (EBAY: up $0.21 to $74.18, Research, Estimates) is expected to report earnings of 24 cents for its fiscal first quarter, up from the 14 cents earned a year earlier.

But more significantly, after the close of trade Thursday, IBM (IBM: up $1.07 to $88.58, Research, Estimates) is expected to report a profit of $1.30 a share, down from the $1.46 earned a year earlier. Sanford Bernstein led the list of influential companies issuing positive forecasts about IBM's earnings Tuesday. Additionally, late Thursday, Microsoft (MSFT: up $0.58 to $56.97, Research, Estimates) is expected to post a profit of 46 cents for its fiscal second quarter, down from 49 cents a year earlier.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW: up $0.14 to $3.90, Research, Estimates) also reports after the bell Thursday and is forecast to have lost 2 cents a share in its fiscal second quarter; it lost 3 cents in the year-earlier period.

"Most of the bad news and pre-announcements are out of the way. What we really need now is guidance that says [revenue] growth is on the way," said Ram Kolluri, chief investment strategist at GlobalValue Investors. "Corporations have done everything they can to cut costs, now we need to see that growth."

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average (up 56.64 to 8842.62, Charts), the Nasdaq composite (up 14.95 to 1460.99, Charts) and the S&P 500 index (up 5.40 to 931.66, Charts) all closed modestly higher ahead of the Intel news, with the technology-fueled Nasdaq making the most gains.

Telecom and networking stocks such as Cisco Systems (CSCO: up $0.30 to $15.58, Research, Estimates) and Lucent Technologies (LU: up $0.03 to $1.84, Research, Estimates) got a lift from an improved forecast out of French telecom Alcatel (ALA: up $1.32 to $7.15, Research, Estimates). Alcatel's American depositary shares, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, added more than 20 percent. The company, Europe's largest maker of telecom gear, said fourth-quarter sales should grow by almost 30 percent and operating profit would be near the breakeven point.

Additionally, shares of Dow component 3M (MMM: up $1.44 to $127.98, Research, Estimates) rose after Prudential Securities raised its price target on the stock to $150 from $147, saying that 3M's board of directors is expected to increase its annual dividend in early February, and that this would give its current share price a little lift.

But long-term concerns over a potential war with Iraq, and how it might impact the global economy, remained and kept a lid on any upside move in the market.

In the latest developments, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix told the BBC that teams in Iraq have found substantial quantities of weapons-related materials, although it wasn't clear if the products were connected to weapons of mass destruction. Blix also warned Iraq that it must provide evidence of its weapons program or face war.

Tuesday marks the three-year anniversary of the Dow industrials hitting their highest point. The index closed at 11, 722.98 on Jan. 14, 2000, and had lost 25 percent of that as of Monday's close.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers by around 10 to 7 on volume of 1.34 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers also beat decliners by around 10 to 7 as 1.49 billion shares changed hands.

Bonds drifted a little higher, with the price of the benchmark 10-year note adding 11/32 of a point, taking the yield down to 4.07 percent. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. The dollar remained weak against both the yen and euro.

In key commodities markets, light crude oil added 19 cents to $31.78 a barrel in New York. Gold fell $2.70 to $352.40 an ounce in New York.