As the global economic downturn continues to chug along, the technology industry and its exchange traded funds (ETFs) continue to be wow Wall Street, but will it continue?

Apple (AAPL) smashed Wall Street’s expectations by posting earnings of $1.33/share as compared to forecasts of $1.09/share.  This nonperformance was fueled by strong sales of the iPhone pushing income up 15%, states Jessica Mintz of the Associated Press.  As for the remaining of the year, Apple issued its typical conservative guidance and believes it will remain profitable. Apple’s iPhone also gave an assist to AT&T (T), which announced that its wireless business kept the company strong enough to surpass expectations in the first quarter.

Internet giant Google (GOOG) also beat analysts’ expectation when reporting earnings of $5.16/share, significantly higher than the $4.93/share forecasted. This was driven by the company’s ability to keep costs low.  Google remains somewhat wary of what the future holds, however, and is being affected by the current economic conditions.

Yahoo (YHOO) met analysts’ expectations by posting income of $0.08/share.  As for the future, the company announced a massive layoff of nearly 5% of its workforce in an attempt to cut costs and remian sustainable.

Microsoft (MSFT) is set to release earnings today after the market close and hopefully can keep the ball rolling for the technology sector.  Even though the aforementioned companies have meet or beat Wall Street’s expectations, many investors are wary of future performance as executives of these companies radiate caution, states Reuters. The forecasts are grim, though: analysts expect the company to report that quarterly revenue fell for the first time in its 23-year history as a public company.

The technology sector may continue to be attractive because the hoards of cash stashed away on their balance sheets and its ability to remain innovative.

Some ETFs that have been influenced by the earnings reports of these companies and should be considered are the following:

• First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index (FDN): up 23.4% year-to-date; GOOG is 10.8%; YHOO is 10.3%

• Technology Select SPDR (XLK): up 9.4% year-to-date; MSFT is 9.2%; AAPL is 6.12%; GOOG is 4.6%; YHOO is 1.2%

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

Tags: FDN, Sector ETFs, Technology, XLK