Overseas, IBM growth consistently modest

IBM's third-quarter revenues coming out of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are tracking on a similar growth pattern as the first half of the year, the company announced on Monday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Big Blue, which is meeting with European investors, said revenue growth during the first two months of the third quarter is "consistent" with the company's EMEA performance during the first six months of the year.

For IBM, that could bode well for its third quarter, given that the EMEA region accounts for roughly a third of its overall revenues.

Last quarter, EMEA revenues rose 20 percent, to $9.8 billion, and in its first quarter, EMEA performance was up 15.7 percent, to nearly $8.8 billion. While those figures appear impressive, when adjusting for currency rates, IBM posted a 7 percent revenue gain in the second quarter and a 4 percent gain in the first.

In its first quarter, IBM characterized that growth level as reflecting a "moderate IT-spending environment."

Big Blue is considered a bellwether stock, with investors looking to its financial performance as a potential indicator of how other hardware makers and chipmakers will perform in the same given quarter.