Numbers continue to ratchet lower for Dell (DELL) ahead of the company’s earnings report after the close Thursday for the fiscal third quarter ended October. While Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) preliminary results today impressed the Street, investors are more focused on the implications of recent ominous warnings from Intel (INTC) and others about the prospects for the rest of this year and 2009.

A number of analysts issued pre-earnings notes this morning and brought down numbers; these follow previous cautionary comments from analysts at Barclays, Merrill Lynch, Goldman, BMO Capital, Citigroup and Credit Suisse.

Cowen’s Louis Miscioscia today repeated his Outperform rating on the stock, but slashed his estimates. He now sees EPS of 31 cents for the October quarter, down from 34 cents; 30 cents for the January quarter, down from 35 cents; $1.30 for the January 2009 fiscal year, down from $1.39; and $1.25 for fiscal 2010, down from $1.49.

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Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes trimmed his EPS estimates and target price today on Apple (AAPL). He now expects EPS for the September 2008 fiscal year of $5.21, down from $5.23; for FY ’09 he sees $5.65, down from $6.05. For FY Q4, he sees $1.11, down from $1.12 previously. Reitzes lowered his target price for the stock to $135, from $180.

He also lowered his Mac and iPod unit forecasts “given checks that indicate slower sales by the day as well as negative checks within the supply chain and prospects for more subdued demand for the upcoming holiday buying season.” He now sees Mac unit sales in the September quarter of 2.76 million, down from 2.96 million; but he increased his estimate on iPhone units to five million from 3.8 million.

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Solar industry shares are off to a rousing start this morning on news that the Senate plans to add the stalled “tax extender” legislation, which includes an eight-year extension to the solar investment tax credit to the pending bailout bill for the financial sector.

In a research note this morning, Cowen’s Robert Stone notes that the Senate will add the tax extenders to the bill, which the Senate is expected to vote on later today. Vishal Shah, solar analyst at Barclays, asserts in a note this morning that Senate approval of the bill could be followed by a House vote on the measure as soon as tomorrow.

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Every cloud has a silver lining. Ask the cybersquatters. Even as the short-selling vultures began circling Lehman Brothers, HBOS, Merrill Lynch and company, a legion of entrepreneurs began betting on domain names for hastily merged financial institutions. For example, when Barclays and Bank of America began to emerge as buyers for Lehman, names such as barclayslehman.com and bofalehman.com were promptly registered by enterprising hopefuls.

Some of these domains were being offered for sale on eBay last week. For example, www.bankofamericamerrilllynch.com was available at a starting bid of $1,500. “With a deal between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch NOW ANNOUNCED,” burbled the seller, “this domain name will soon be incredibly popular. This is the only domain name that conveys the full picture, using the name of both firms. … This is the most comprehensive and commonsensical domain name available concerning the MERGER OF BANK OF AMERICA CORP AND MERRILL LYNCH & CO.” The last time your columnist checked, however, the auction had attracted no bidders. Still–nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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