(NASDAQ: INTC) is apparently having a solid quarter, and investors are happy about this. After the chip incumbent's leader made encouraging remarks about its current fundamentals, its stock closed Thursday nearly 2% higher. That was a notably better performance than that of the S 500 index, which slipped by almost 0.2% on the day.

In an industry conference Thursday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger waxed optimistic about the company's current (third) quarter. Speaking about the guidance it offered for the period, the executive said, "Taking all of those things together at this point, we say we're above the midpoint of our guide for Q3. So we're feeling good about Q3 as that progresses."

That pronouncement came only a few days after the latest bullish development with Intel. On Wednesday, the company announced it would roll out a new data center chip, the Sierra Forest, that is far more efficient in terms of power use than its present offerings. This is sure to be a compelling new product for data center operators looking to save costs and/or make their operations "greener."

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Source Fool.com