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American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman this morning turned bullish on the semiconductor sector, raising his rating on the group to Overweight from Equal Weight.

Freedman wrote in a research note that there could be a bear market rally ahead “as second derivative data points will likely start improving” in the 2009 first half. For those who missed calculus class the day there were doing second derivatives, what he means is that things may still be getting worse, but at a slower rate.

The outlook for the chip sector keeps crumbling, and the Street keeps bringing down its numbers.

This morning, analysts at both Robert W. Baird and Needham issued highly negative reports on the outlook for the sector. In short, rather than seeing any signs that things might soon get better, or at least bottom, the two firms fear that conditions continue to erode, with no near-term end of the downward slide in sight.

Filed under: Earnings reports, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Starbucks (SBUX), Campbell Soup (CPB), Tiffany and Co (TIF), Xerox Corp (XRX), Deere and Co (DE), salesforce.com inc (CRM)

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

When the Internet and telecom bubble burst, Silicon Valley jobs evaporated: by 2005, California’s Santa Clara County - which includes San Jose, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Mountain View and other tech-focused towns - had given up more than 20% of its total job base, a loss of over 200,000 jobs. So how bad will it get this time around?

Analog Devices (ADI) this afternoon posted solid results for its fiscal first quarter ended November 1, but also provided guidance for the January quarter that was well short of Street expectations.

For Q4, the company posted revenue of $661 million and profits of 49 cents a share; that beat the Street consensus at $655.1 million and 44 cents.