Advanced Micro Devices (AMD $2.95 -0.25) issued downside guidance for the third quarter, seeing revenues down 10% quarter over quarter (lowered from -4 to +2%) to approximately $1.271 billion versus the $1.38 billion Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. The lower than anticipated preliminary revenue results are primarily due to weaker than expected demand across all product lines caused by the challenging macroeconomic environment. The company now expects third quarter gross margin to be approximately 31%, less than the previous expectation of approximately 44% primarily due to an inventory write-down of around $100 million due to lower than anticipated future demand for certain products. Third quarter gross margin was also negatively impacted by weaker than expected demand, which contributed to lower than anticipated average selling prices (ASPs) for the company's Computing Solutions Group products and lower than expected utilization of its back-end manufacturing facilities. Operating expenses for the third quarter are expected to decline approximately 7% quarter over quarter as a result of tightly controlled expenses. AMD will report third quarter 2012 results after market close on Thursday, October 18, 2012.






