I think it was due to the rumor that they were going to miss is the reason they announced early: <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/99202-ibm-pre-announces-a-strong-q3-but-don-t-expect-a-tech-sector-trend?source=yahoo" target="_blank">http://seekingalpha.com/article/99202-ibm-pre-announces-a-strong-q3-but-don-t-expect-a-tech-sector-trend?source=yahoo</a>