Mark Hurd is finally starting to look on the bright side. The boss of HP has been one of the most cautious tech CEOs in recent weeks, but when I caught up with him moments after the company put out its latest quarterly earnings today (the headline numbers were pre-announced earlier this month) he was sounding uncharacteristically relaxed.

You have to be a student of Mr Hurd’s normally dour style to understand just how optimistic he can make it sound when he says he’s feeling “a little more positive”. He said there had been a continuing rebound in the US in the latest quarter and “good sequential improvement in Asia in most markets”.

The one thing preventing Mr Hurd from feeling downright happy, in fact, is Europe. Read more