HP Buyback plan

HP tripled the size of its share repurchase program to $12 b as China sales and better profit margins on its services boosted quarterly earnings.

The fiscal 4^th quarter results released on Nov23rd were in line with beginning figures that HP gave two weeks ago, which had topped Wall Street's estimates at the time. Shares of HP fell down slightly in after few hours of trading. It is a hardware and technology services company that is a bellwether for IT spending, has been more careful than some of its peers in predicting an economic turnaround.

But CE Mark Hurd sounded somewhat more positive, noting pockets of frequent demand, including in its closely watched printer business, which has struggled this year."The economy remains challenging, but we do see encouraging signs of recovery in certain markets," Hurd said."They're basically pointing to year-over-year growth in the January quarter," said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu. "It's a good sign."