Though technology vendors are coming off a solid quarter, a decline in orders from troubled sectors of the U.S. economy is expected to have an impact on IT bellwethers as diverse as Cisco, Oracle and Sun.
Earnings announcements this week piqued worries that economic problems in the U.S. could put a break on business spending. Shares of tech companies, which have been riding high on a raft of good earnings reports, declined along with the rest of the market this week.
“U.S. IT enterprise spending is likely to slow in the near term, particularly in key verticals such as financial services and retail,” according to a Citi Investment Research report released Thursday.
A surge in sales in the mature carrier router arena was one of the nice surprises that helped Cisco to a stronger-than-expected quarter. Wednesday it announced that revenue for the quarter ending in September was US$9.6 billion, up about 17 per cent, while net income rose more than 37 per cent to US$2.2 billion. But company expectations for a soft enterprise market for the current quarter hit a chord for nervous IT investors.
“With the likelihood that this isn’t a one quarter fix for the US Enterprise, there is risk of spillover into international markets,” according to Citi Investment Research. Cisco shares fell by US$3.12 Thursday to close at US$29.63.
Sun Monday also reported solid profit, announcing its fourth consecutive quarter in the black after several years of losses. But revenue that was lower than analysts estimated, due to slower-than-forecast server sales, spooked investors. Sun shares lost US$0.55 Tuesday, to close at US$5.16.
Industry bellwether Oracle will address analysts next week at its OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. But Citi hit a note of caution, saying that sagging enterprise sales may affect some of its core customer base. Oracle lost US$1.75 Thursday to close at US$20.35.
