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.

Read the rest of this post