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.