Business-software maker Progress Software reported Thursday that second-quarter profit dropped 52 percent. For the third quarter, it forecast earnings per share of $0.38 to $0.41 a share on revenue of $120 million to $123 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were hoping for EPS of $0.42 on sales of $122 million.

Electronics retailer Best Buy on Tuesday posted quarterly income of $153 million, or $0.36 per share, down from $179 million, or $0.43 a share a year earlier. Sales at stores open at least 14 months and Internet sales fell 6.2 percent.

The economy is also affecting Web 2.0 services such as MySpace, which Tuesday called its staff "bloated" and announced it would cut 30 percent of its workforce. MySpace, owned by News Corp., has been overtaken in the social-networking market by Facebook, which now lays claim to being the most popular social-networking service in the U.S., after already holding that position globally.

While some analysts are forecasting the beginning of a recovery in the second half of the year, IT vendors themselves are still treading cautiously. IT investors will be getting more data on how the year is going next month when most vendors report second quarter earnings. It will no doubt take more time than that, however, to confidently make predictions about the end of the year.