IBM gains 3.6% after rising margins and huge stock buybacks allow it to post a Q2 EPS beat in...

IBM gains 3.6% after rising margins and huge stock buybacks allow it to post a Q2 EPS beat in spite of a sales miss. For now, the Street is willing to look past a nearly across-the-board slowdown in hardware, software, and services (affected some by forex). During its earnings call, IBM partly attributed its margin improvement to better spending discipline for services, and a mix shift towards software. Italy and France are blamed for Europe's poor performance.