IBM – bless its mercenary little heart – trounced the Street’s Q2 projections and for a surprise raised its full-year expectations Thursday despite the lingering horror of the macro economy.

It expects to exploit growth opportunities that the recovery presents.

Q2 sales weren’t great but IBM’s taken a machete to costs and it’s got salvation margins. It now expects to earn $9.70, up 50 cents from its forecast six months ago and 2010 could come in above its $10-$11 estimate.

In the June quarter it earned $3.1 billion, $2.32 a share, up 12% on sales down 13% to $23.3 billion. Wall Street expected a mere $2.02 on $23.6 billion. Absent currency, sales would only have been down 7%.

Global service revenues were down 12% to $13.45 billion; software revenues were down 7.3% to $5.17 billion; servers and storage were down 26%.

IBM’s Q2 margin was up almost two points to 45.5%. And it’s got $12.5 billion in cash.