As usual, there was plenty of bad news to go around. Networking and telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent reported Tuesday that for the first quarter, revenue dropped to €3.60 billion (US$4.82 billion) from €3.86 billion a year earlier, while its net loss increased to €402 million from €181 million. Officials forecast a 10 percent decline in sales this year from 2008, though they also said they expect to reach break-even on adjusted earnings in the wake of layoffs and other cost cuts.

The news about cost controls appeared to cheer investors, who pushed company shares up from $1.96 to $2.04 after the announcement.

Analysts appear to be looking at vendor cost structures to determine which companies will be in pole position to take off when IT and telecom users start spending money again. Despite Sprint-Nextel's dismal quarterly report Monday, UBS increased estimates on the company to reflect an improved cost structure, while Oppenheimer raised its rating on the company from "underperform" to "perform."

"We generated more than enough cash in this quarter alone to pay all of our 2009 debt maturities," said Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse .

Sprint said earnings fell 18 percent to $505 million while operating revenue dropped 12 percent to $8.2 billion.