Cisco results herald market stabilisation

CISCO HAS ANNOUNCED that its earnings fell 21 per cent in its latest quarter, but since this was far better than anyone expected it is being touted that the market is stablising.

Chief Executive John Chambers told AP hacks that punters were seeing something "reasonably solid underneath their feet," but you get that when you jump off a tall building too.

He thinks that order rates have bottomed out and things should get better from now on for bottoms everywhere.

The outfit made $1.3 billion, down from $1.8 billion in the same quarter last year. Sales fell 17 percent to $8.2 billion. Analysts had expected sales of $8.1 billion.

Chambers expects sales for the current quarter to be down 17 percent from a year earlier, which works out to a range of $8.3 billion to $8.6 billion. The strokers of beards and people on the street were expecting sales of $8.26 billion. µ