News of weak server sales, continuing turmoil at Hewlett-Packard and the ongoing U.S. political impasse over the so-called "fiscal cliff" have not given tech industry watchers much to cheer about this week.
Hewlett-Packard is taking an $US8.8 billion charge as a result of what it called serious accounting improprieties that occurred at UK software company, Autonomy, before it acquired the firm in 2011.
Though U.S. political leaders managed to spark some good news for the economy Friday, technology stocks are down for the week, showing a continued lack of confidence in the sector.
The number and value of technology mergers and acquisitions is flattening out, mainly as a result of economic uncertainty, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
Tech stocks were flat Friday afternoon after earnings announcements from IT vendors this week and a government economic report offered glimpses of good news, but not enough to dispel the pall that hangs over the technology market.
Some of the biggest names in tech reported quarterly earnings this week, and the resulting picture is not pretty. The main culprit for the weak earnings reported this week is a slump in the PC market, but uncertainty about the global economy is weighing down almost all sectors of IT.
Reports of weakness in the hardware and components sectors rolled in this week from market researchers and vendors, contributing to an overall decline in confidence in tech on the part of IT analysts and investors.
Even though an upbeat U.S. government jobs report caused shares of some companies to jump Friday, tech vendor stocks faltered on the back of mixed quarterly reports.
Shares of technology companies finished up for the third quarter Friday, but face economic uncertainty for the rest of the year.
With companies including Oracle, Tibco and Adobe issuing quarterly financial statements this week, earnings season is under way and despite mixed reports on the economy, confidence in tech appears to be stable.
Tech stocks rallied Friday as markets rode a wave of euphoria over the U.S. Federal Reserve's commitment to buy bonds to boost the economy and as excitement over Apple's iPhone 5 got industry analysts talking about an "iPhone stimulus."
The tech-heavy Nasdaq retreated a bit Friday after a rally Thursday in which the exchange touched its highest point since 2000, after the dot-com bubble burst and tech stocks started their descent.
While Apple started out the week claiming a stock market record, the news was much bleaker for other manufacturers, like Dell and Hewlett-Packard, which face a slowdown in the PC arena.
A U.S. District Court judge has rejected a proposed settlement in a lawsuit that alleges Facebook violated users' rights by using their names and recommendations of advertisers to be publicized through a Sponsored Stories program.
Google-owned Motorola Mobility has filed yet another claim against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission, this time asserting that devices including the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch infringe patents related to features such as email notifications, location reminders, and media players.