Stocks, Second Quarter Earnings | featured news

Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street, deflated by signs that the global economic meltdown is being felt across Asia... China reported sharply lower growth in its exports. The so-called fiscal cliff, when U.S. government spending cuts and higher taxes kick in on Jan. 1, looms larger now that the distraction of earnings season is over.

Portfolio managers will be doing some last-minute shopping for winners from the big stock market rally as they take part next week in the quarter-end ritual of window dressing.

In its quarterly earning released on Monday, IBM reported revenues of $26.7 billion – up 12% from the same period last year. With IBM reporting its 4th consecutive quarter of double digit revenue growth, its shares have marched higher since its announcement. The stock is up nearly 50% in the last year surpassing Microsoft as the second largest technology company by market cap behind Apple. IBM’s primary competitors include HP, Dell and Oracle.

Stocks opened higher as encouraging quarterly results from blue-chip companies and a hint of housing optimism gave a boost to investor sentiment.

Google recently announced its Q2 2011 earnings on July 14, 2011. [1] For the quarter, total advertising revenues surged by about 33% over Q2 2010 values driven by increased paid clicks as well as higher cost-per-click rates over the same quarter last year.