The Street was greeted with another deluge of tech-sector earnings after the close this evening, and the results can be broken down into the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

Shares of Broadcom (BRCM: sentiment, chart, options) rose more than 3% in after-hours activity on Tuesday after the company reported a second-quarter net profit of $134.8 million, or 25 cents per share. Revenue rose 34% to $1.2 billion. The results shocked analysts, who were expecting a profit of 14 cents per share on revenue of $1.1 billion. Expectations were low heading into the report, as the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.41 ranked above 91% of all those taken during the past year - indicating a pessimistic extreme among speculative investors. If this technical strength carries over into tomorrow's trading, BRCM could make a run at overhead resistance in the 29-30 region.

The Bad

Yahoo! (YHOO: sentiment, chart, options) stock traded modestly lower in late trading after the company's second-quarter profit and sales fell short of analysts' estimates. Net income for the period fell to $131 million, or 9 cents per share, while net revenue rose 8% to $1.35 billion. Analysts were looking for a profit of 10 cents per share on revenue of $1.38 billion. Despite heavy pessimism from short sellers (12% of float sold short) and analysts (15 of 20 "hold" or worse ratings), options traders are apparently looking for a bounce in the equity. YHOO's SOIR of 0.39 indicates that calls nearly triple puts among near-term options. Furthermore, this ratio ranks just 2% shy of an annual peak, signaling an extreme in optimistic sentiment. The stock closed with a loss of 1.25% today, and investors should keep a close eye on round-number support at the 20 level in tomorrow's trading.

The Ugly

Shares of VMware Inc. (VMW: sentiment, chart, options) plunged more than 11% in electronic trading on Tuesday, despite the company's strong second-quarter performance. For the period, VMW reported an ex-items profit of $92 million, or 23 cents per share, on revenue of $456 million. The figures largely bested analysts' expectations for earnings of 22 cents per share on $459 million in revenue. However, the company scuttled the report when it placed third-quarter sales estimates between $462 million and $468 million, versus Wall Street's expectations for revenue of almost $497 million. Should the stock's after-hours woes bleed through into tomorrow's trading, the stock could gap to a fresh all-time low below short-term support at the 35 level.