$IBM's signings of new business at its services division surged 16 percent in the second quarter, trouncing expectations and raising hopes that 2011 will be a good year for the technology sector.
Investors had feared that technology sales would slow in the second half, hurt by the economic uncertainty in Europe and Japan, as well as a drop in government spending. But $IBM offset those challenges with strong growth in developing markets from Brazil to China, and robust sales of a new line of mainframe computers.