The Dow Jones Industrial Index (^DJI +1.38%) hit new highs this week, just nearly missing the coveted 17,000 mark during Friday's session before pulling back to close at 16,947, up 172 points or 1% from last week's close. While the week started off on a bit of a low note, the bulls exited the week with another win. In tech, Microsoft (MSFT +0.30%) moved up nicely with the Dow, Oracle (ORCL +3.07%) slumped following a quarterly miss, and BlackBerry (BBRY +3.26%) soared following an upside surprise in its earnings report.
Microsoft eyes "kill switch" for Windows Phone
Microsoft gained 1.07%, keeping in line with the Dow this week. While the company enjoyed a quiet week of stock-moving news flow, a report from Bloomberg did surface that both Microsoft and Google (GOOG +0.06%) would be adding "kill switches" to their respective smartphone operating systems in a bid to reduce phone thefts. Apple has been successful with this strategy so far, with Apple product thefts plummeting 19% during the first five months in New York year over year, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and dropping 38% and 24% in San Francisco and London, respectively. Microsoft's Windows Phone currently has 3.3% of the U.S. smartphone market, trailing Android and iOS with 52.5% and 41.4% share, respectively, according to comScore.
Oracle slumps
Shares of enterprise software giant Oracle closed down nearly 4% following its earnings report. The company reported $11.32 billion (up 3.4% year over year) in sales and earnings per share of $0.92 for its fiscal fourth quarter, missing consensus by $160 million and $0.03, respectively. That said, the company guided to in-line results, calling for revenue growth of 4-6% on a year-over-year basis and $0.62-$0.66 in earnings per share. The guidance was about what the sell side expected, with consensus sitting at 4.8% year-top line growth and $0.64 per share on the bottom line.
BlackBerry soars
Shares of former smartphone star BlackBerry powered higher this week, gaining over 24% for the week following its earnings report. The company's Q1 revenue of $966 million, down a whopping 68.5% year over year, slightly beat consensus. However, the $0.11 adjusted loss per share compared extremely well with consensus of a loss of $0.26 per share.
The company noted in its press release that the company recognized revenue on approximately 1.6 million BlackBerry smartphones during the quarter, up from 1.3 million in the prior quarter. Further, BlackBerry saw its cash position bolstered to $3.1 billion, up from $2.7 billion at the end of last quarter, as a tax refund of $397 million and $287 million in proceeds from a real-estate sale more than offset the $255 million used in operations. While BlackBerry isn't out of the woods yet, things do seem to be improving.
