HP jumped the gun Tuesday and told the worried multitudes a week ahead of when it's supposed to release its latest numbers that it more than just survived the volatile quarter it just ended in October when the bottom fell out of the economy.

Not only that but, unlike the panicky Cisco and Intel, it forecast a relatively unscathed future.

Some people think it's smoking dope or at least wearing rose-colored glasses and couldn't possibly have the kind of visibility it claims. Guess we'll find out eventually when everything shakes out.

Anyway, HP said it saw revenues of $33.6 billion in the October quarter, up 16% when adjusted for currency fluctuations. That's with its $13.9 billion EDS acquisition, completed in August. Without it, revenues would have been up just 2% - up being better than down.

Non-GAAP earnings came in at $1.03 (84 cents net), a few pennies better than Wall Street's dollar consensus of $33.09 billion. HP wrote off 19 cents in acquisition-related costs.

HP attributed its performance to "its global reach, diverse customer base, broad portfolio and numerous cost initiatives." CEO Mark Hurd summed it up as "execution." We'll have to wait to see what parts of HP did well.

As for this quarter, well, despite other people's projected declines in the PC business, HP figures it can do $32 billion-$32.5 billion and return 80 cents-82 cents a share. Not quite as good as the 93 cents on $33.72 billion Wall Street has been predicting but a lot better than the free-floating fears.

For all of its next fiscal year HP says it'll do $127.5 billion-$130 billion, $500 million under analysts' predictions of $135.2 billion but better-than-thought on the earnings side: $3.88-$4.03 excluding items. Analysts were thinking $3.86.

HP is still taking guarded steps. It told its people to take two-weeks vacation, mostly paid, at Christmastime rather than the usual week it closes to save money.

HP, which is in the process of firing 24,600 people worldwide as part of integrating EDS, closed up close to 14.5% to $33.59, having lost a third of its market value in the last two months.