Wall Street

During the tech industry's last big slump, software and hardware vendors were slow to cut costs as falling demand pummeled profits.

This time around, Oracle isn't taking chances. Oracle, the world's No. 2 software company, hit Wall Street's earnings target when it reported fiscal second-quarter results on Dec. 18, by aggressively cutting research and development, travel, and other costs as its customers curtail spending.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is among the most recent casualties of the slowdown in technology spending. On Dec. 4 the chipmaker drastically cut its sales outlook, saying fourth-quarter revenue will drop about 25 percent from the third quarter's $1.59 billion.

As politicians, Wall Street, and retailers watch economic indicators with a hopeful eye, Symantec has offered insight on a different economy.

Symantec on Monday released its Report on the Underground Economy. The overarching takeaway is that the online underground economy has matured into an efficient, global marketplace in which stolen goods and fraud-related services are regularly bought and sold. It estimated the value of goods offered by individual traders in the millions of dollars.

Hewlett-Packard Co. surprised Wall Street on Tuesday by saying its earnings will be slightly above analysts' expectations, going against the grain as other technology bellwethers have slashed forecasts and posted weak results in the sagging economy.

Its shares climbed more than 12 percent in morning trading.

Cisco Systems warned that a sharp drop in sales could push quarterly revenue down by as much as 10 percent.

The computer networking giant, the first major technology company to report earnings that include October, when the credit crisis spread beyond financial companies, said Wednesday that its sales had fallen 9 percent from the same month a year earlier.

Cisco expects sales for its current quarter to drop 5 percent to 10 percent from the $9.8 billion reported in the same period a year ago.

Telecommunications giant AT&T reported its earnings rose 5.5 percent during the third quarter, but profits fell short of analyst predictions. Ironically, the chief cause of both the rise in revenues and the disappointing profits was the same: The company's strong sales of Apple's iPhone 3G.

According to the company's report, 2.4 million people activated an iPhone 3G during the third quarter, and 40 percent of those were new AT&T wireless subscribers.

Once again, Apple has convincingly demonstrated that good things come in small packages. Thanks largely to a terrific sales quarter for the iPhone, Apple bucked the grim economy by posting a remarkable 26 percent increase in profits for the fourth quarter.

In a telephone conference announcing the news, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company's entire product line is strong.