<p>IDG News Service - Though software sales provided a ray of light in otherwise mixed results this week, gloom settled over the tech sector Friday in the wake of bellwether IT quarterly earnings reports.</p><p>The broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index managed to close Friday at a record high of 1,692.09, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 23.66 points to 3,587.61, and the Dow Jones industrial average declined 4.65 points to 15,543.89. Of the five tech stocks on the Dow, only Intel traded up slightly, while Microsoft, IBM, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard were down.</p><p>"Overall I'd say the earnings confirmed some common themes -- software is going to do better than hardware and services," said Forrester chief economist Andrew Bartels.</p><p>In Forrester's latest forecast for the global tech market, issued last week, Bartels lowered expectations for spending on IT goods and services to 2.3 percent growth measured in U.S. dollars, from the January estimate of 3.3 percent. Calculated in local currencies, the forecast looks better, at a 4.6 percent increase, but recession in Europe and slower growth in China is putting a damper on tech purchases by any measure.</p><p><a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240924/Wall_Street_Beat_Software_a_bright_spot_as_tech_results_bring_gloom">Keep reading...</a></p>
