Column: Tech investors need nuanced view of global stocks

Investors in Cisco were so deeply unimpressed by the company’s latest quarterly results that the stock lost more than 7% of its value Thursday, closing at $24.47.

Among the deeply unimpressive facts were the numbers on the company’s performance in three countries that had been among the world’s hottest investment targets for the past 10 years. Business in Brazil and Russia was flat, and in China it was down 6%, CEO John Chambers said on the Cisco earnings call. Sales in the entire Asia-Pacific region overall were down 3%.

Moreover, positive signs of growth in Japan and elsewhere aren’t likely to give the company much of a boost in the short term. That was the apparent reasoning behind the company’s plan to shrink its workforce by 5%:  “The necessity of a 5% reduction in force is likely the key indication that a macro recovery in key regions like Japan is not in the near-term outlook,” Chambers said.