Yesterday’s further leap into the stratosphere by the dollar, which at one stage burst through the 140 yen and 2 Deutschmark barriers, is not going to do IBM’s second quarter figures any good at all unless it turns smartly round and heads back down again over the next six weeks: as we understand it, IBM does its translation of foreign business into the dollar at the exchange rates ruling at the end of each quarter, so this quarter it is particularly dependent on the dollar turning down again before the end of June – since April 1, the dollar has risen more than 5% against the Deutschmark and similar amounts against most other major currencies, and with US business still clearly rotten, as evidenced by the pay freeze at DEC, IBM’s dependence on foreign business to make its numbers is as big as ever.
