For example, software bellwether Oracle on Tuesday issued a quarterly report that contained some worrisome figures. Revenue for the quarter ending May 31 was US$6.9 billion, down 5 percent compared to the year-earlier period. Income was $1.9 billion, certainly a nice profit but nevertheless down 7 percent from the year earlier. Most troubling, new software license sales were down 13 percent to $2.7 billion. New software sales are usually taken as a sign of things to come, and a 13 percent drop is typically not seen as good.

But traders pushed Oracle shares to $21.26 Wednesday, up by $2.39.

Part of the reason for cheer was that Oracle did manage to beat expectations, which were battered by a tough first calendar quarter. Excluding one-time charges, Oracle reported $0.46 per share, edging out expectations of analysts, who had been looking for earnings of $0.44 per share, according to a survey done by Thomson Reuters. But tech investors also love the sort of revenue generated by product updates, services and ongoing subscriptions -- a software company that has healthy services and updates income is seen to have a sort of annuity business it can count on in bad times. And Oracle's updates and services business grew by 8 percent to hit $3.1 billion.

Red Hat's subscription business also showed good growth, increasing by 14 percent from last year to hit $148.8 million. Revenue increased 11 percent to $174.4 million, beating analyst estimates of $171.8 million. Income was up to $18.5 million compared to $17.3 million a year earlier.

On the hardware side, Gartner still says worldwide PC shipments in 2009 will decline, but it is now forecasting the drop to be less severe than it had expected. In a forecast issued Thursday, Gartner said PC shipments will drop 6 percent, compared to the 6.6 percent decline it forecast last month and the 9.2 percent drop it forecast in March.