IBM Beat Buoys Hope

Updated from July 18

To the relief of tech investors, IBM (IBM Quote) beat earnings estimates by a penny and nailed its revenue expectations for the second quarter.

"The level of expectation on Wall Street was so low, in my mind, there was only one way to go afterward, and that was up," said Bob Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research, who owns Big Blue shares. "The absence of bad news was good news."

Djurdjevic said IBM's improvement in profitability in the software business was a positive, and mainframe revenue growth "was a pleasant surprise." ...