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IBM raised its 2010 profit target and reported a stronger-than-expected 9 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings, as cost cuts and a shift to more profitable contracts helped it weather a slump in corporate spending.

Stocks rose broadly on Tuesday, lifting the Dow and the S&P 500 to fresh 15-month closing highs as investors bet a potential Republican victory in Massachusetts' Senate race could stall Obama's reform agenda.

Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Tuesday as U.S. markets reopen after a long holiday weekend, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.04 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.07 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2 percent at 1030 GMT (5:30 a.m. EST).

Profits from top U.S. technology companies like IBM and financial companies like Goldman Sachs Group Inc this week could help stocks gain as long as investors see room for more profit growth.

IBM's quarterly results should show a solid recovery in technology spending, but investors will likely want reassurance of stronger growth in 2010 before pushing its stock price much higher.

Tata Consultancy Services glided past street estimates with a 33 percent rise in quarterly profit as demand for outsourcing surged and prices stabilised, fuelling hopes of recovery in the showpiece sector.

U.S. stocks traded flat to slightly higher on Thursday as upcoming earnings from Intel Corp spurred interest in technology shares, though gains were limited by an unexpected drop in December retail sales.

Asian shares rebounded on Thursday as fears receded that China's policy tightening would slow its demand, while strong Australian jobs data raised the chances of a February interest rate hike and boosted the Aussie dollar.

Share markets in Asia rebounded on Thursday as worries that China's policy tightening would slow its demand receded, while strong Australian jobs data raised the chances of a February interest rate hike and boosted the Aussie dollar.

Infosys Technologies, the country's No.2 outsourcer, raised its annual sales forecast as big financial services clients boost orders in an improving global economy, pointing to an industry recovery.

Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc plans to begin selling later this year a long-awaited, affordable home version of its TelePresence videoconferencing system for corporations.

Polycom Inc said it will work with IBM to introduce videoconferencing services aimed at consumers, competing with Skype and a yet-to-be announced product from Cisco Systems Inc.

Lenovo Group Ltd is unveiling a new look for its classic ThinkPad line, and is including Advanced Micro Devices Inc microprocessors in the laptops for the first time.

U.S. stocks ended 2009 on Thursday with their best gains since 2003, driven by optimism about the economy's recovery and a brighter outlook for profits.

Shares of International Business Machines Corp have significant room for growth and merit trading at a higher multiple, financial weekly Barron's said in its Sunday edition.

AT&T Inc (T.N) is looking to sell its outsourced services business in Japan, in a pullback for the U.S. giant from Asia's largest telecommunications market, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

Egypt has begun making its national archives digitally available on the Internet in Arabic, having last month registered the world's first domain name in Arabic script.

EU regulators signaled they could clear Oracle Corp's $7 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc , after the U.S. software company promised measures to ease competition concerns.

EU regulators signaled they could clear Oracle Corp's $7 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc, after the U.S. software company promised measures to ease competition concerns.

A former senior IBM Corp executive denied being involved in a sprawling hedge fund insider trading case and asked a court on Wednesday to dismiss civil charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In part one of Getting Into The Christmas Spirit German Style, I spoke of how Saxony helped get me into the Christmas spirit. In this article, I got further into the Christmas spirit by taking in some of the

Worldwide server revenue tumbled 15.5 percent in the third quarter to $10.7 billion, industry tracker Gartner said on Monday, with four of the top five vendors posting double-digit declines from a year ago.

IBM , the world's biggest technology services company, is expected to announce this week the acquisition of database security start-up Guardium for $225 million, Israeli financial newspaper TheMarker reported.

Hewlett-Packard Co tripled the size of its share repurchase program to $12 billion as China sales and better profit margins on its services boosted quarterly earnings.

Lazard Ltd on Tuesday named insider Kenneth Jacobs as CEO and chairman, succeeding legendary Wall Street dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein, who died last month.

IBM launched a new cloud computing service on Monday, aiming to take on companies such as Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc, Microsoft Corp and Salesforce.com Inc.

Major technology companies seem to be launching multibillion-dollar acquisitions every other week, and those who don't join the race may be at risk of getting run over.

Two computer programmers designed codes to falsify thousands of fake trade blotters and phantom records for swindler Bernard Madoff and took hush money to help keep the massive fraud going, U.S. authorities said.

Hewlett-Packard Co's $3.1 billion play for 3Com Corp will help the technology giant expand its product portfolio amid rapid industry consolidation -- and few think HP is done shopping.