Earnings edge: trading ahead of the profit report deluge

As you might remember from Wednesday’s Fast Money  of all the sectors in the S&P, tech was the only one to close out the first quarter of ’09 in the green – it was up 4%. Will stocks in

this sector continue to outperform? For insights we turned to widely followed tech analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray. Here’s a synopsis of what he told us: GOOGLE  - Q1 revenues will

likely come in about 5% lower than last year, which is slightly below consensus. - The firm appears poised to win more dollars from paid clicks. MUNSTER’S CONCLUSION: I’d be long Google

ahead of earnings. At the end of the day the advertising market isn’t as bad as most people think. APPLE - Both Mac and iPod sales should be strong. - New iPhones in June and a more

affordable AT&T plan could provide catalyst for the stock. MUNSTER’S CONCLUSION: We think the stock is going to pull back after Apple's earnings report. I’d look to own it going

into the summer. OTHER In case you’re wondering, Munster also told the desk Microsoft still faces a hard road ahead and he expects them to face pricing pressure from netbooks. In addition,

Munster said chip stocks are starting to improve but it’s hard to say whether the improvement will be sustainable. ______________________________________________________ Got something to to

say? Send us an e-mail at [email protected] and your comment might be posted on the _Rapid Recap. _If you'd prefer to make a comment but not have it published on our website send

those e-mails to . _Trader disclosure: On Apr 7th, 2009, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s Fast Money were owned by the Fast Money traders;

Macke Owns (WFC), (AAPL), (WMT), (SDS), (GS), (GE); Terranova Owns (X), (KCE), (AMGN), (DELL), (DIS), (BP), (BRCM); Terranova Owns (COP) Calls, (HES) Calls, (IBM) Calls; Terranova Owns

(JPM) & (JPM) Calls; Terranova Owns (INTC) & (INTC) Calls; Finerman Owns (AXP), (RIG); Finerman's Firm Owns (RIG), (UNH), (MSFT), (PBR); Finerman's Firm Owns (WFC)

Preferred; Finerman's Firm Is Short (IJR), (MDY), (SPY), (IWM), (USO), (BBT), (WFC); Seymour Owns (AAPL), (BAC), (EEM), (FCX), (FXI), (F), (GLD); Seymour Is Short (USO)_ _For Gene

Munster __Piper Jaffray Makes A Market In Shares Of (AAPL) __Piper Jaffray Makes A Market In Shares Of (AMZN) __Piper Jaffray Makes A Market In Shares Of (BIDU) __Piper Jaffray Makes A

Market In Shares Of (EBAY) __Piper Jaffray Makes A Market In Shares Of (GOOG) __Piper Jaffray Makes A Market In Shares Of (YHOO)_ CNBC.com with wires