Microsoft's stock has jumped today by almost 4% on news that is laying off 18,000 staff, most of them from it's recently acquired Nokia division. The stock has been rising steadily since the start of 2013 as investors have become more confident of the computing giants future. Microsoft's tablets and smartphones have been doing reasonably well, even with the strong competition from Samsung and Apple. There also seems to be confidence in it's new leader, Satya Nadella and these cost cutting measures prove he's got a good idea of Microsoft's future strategy.
At the time of writing the stock was at $45.