Shares of International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) are rallying after the company reported third-quarter 2022 earnings. The company slightly beat both revenue and earnings expectations. So far in 2022, IBM's total return (which includes dividend payments) is down less than 5%, compared to a negative 21.5% return for the S&P 500. This is a sleepy tech stock putting up pedestrian growth numbers, but that's OK in this bear market.

But how pedestrian is IBM exactly? Well, excluding the effects of a record run-up in the U.S. dollar, IBM actually grew at a fairly brisk pace. Here's how that happened.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has been hiking interest rates at a record pace this year in an attempt to get inflation under control. A side effect of those increases is a strengthening U.S. dollar. Against a basket of other currencies (like the euro and the yen), the dollar has gained a whopping 17% in value in 2022.  

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Source Fool.com