Microsoft Pulls Stocks Down But Goodyear Resilient

Microsoft’s [[msft]] shares fell by around 6.5% as it reported 3Q net income fell 11% to $4.39 billion, or 47 cents a share. The most troubling part of the Microsoft report though, was the fact that sales of its Windows operating system fell by 24%, sparking fears that PC sales may not be as reilient to the economic downturn as investors initially hoped. One of the possible reasons for this decline is that more PC sales are coming from developing nations where piracy is rampant and those new PC buyers may not be purchasing Windows licenses.

Goodyear [[gt]] however, managed to turn a better than expected profit of $147 million, or 60 cents per share. It acheived this profit on price hikes on its higher range of tires even as its lower-priced consumer tires sold less due to the economic slowdown. And as with most international companies this earnings season, a big part of this profit came thanks to the lower US dollar, with Goodyear attributing up to $341 million of sales to a lower dollar.

Overall markets were dragged down on the back of Microsoft and on the lowest consumer confidence in the last 26 years. Rising oil prices was a major factor in the low consumer confidence along with dropping home prices and the almost 250,000 jobs which have been lost so far this year.

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