Analysts believe that the housing market may have finally bottomed out last year. According to real estate research firms, 2011 home prices fell 2.1% over the year. Researchers believe that during the current year, the housing market will see growth of 0.2% across all markets. Another report estimates growth to continue into 2013, when home prices will grow 3% through 2016. With unemployment finally dropping and the economy picking up, home shopping may soon be on the rise again.
According to a recent report by Gartner on global IT spending, worldwide IT spending is projected to grow 3.7% in 2012 to $3.8 trillion. Earlier estimates had pegged the year’s growth at 4.6%. Revenues from IT services are expected to grow at a comparatively slower pace of 3.1% to $874 billion. Gartner expects the Eurozone crisis to impact technology spend. Despite these worrisome predictions, IT services outsourcers are continuing to surpass market expectations.
In April 2011, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) entered into an agreement with Microsoft to adopt the Microsoft Windows Phone platform. They released their Lumia range of phones, their first phones based on the Windows operating system, in November 2011. In their recent financial results they reported sales of more than one million Lumia phones, exceeding analyst estimates. Let’s take a closer look.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm payroll employment in the country grew by 243,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%. Job growth was widespread across the private sector, specifically in leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing. The numbers spell good news for payroll processing firms, which managed to beat market expectations in the recent quarter results and are expected to perform better in the coming quarters.
