Financial reports don’t always make for the most riveting of reading we’ll admit that, but nonetheless, quarterly figures and share prices are always worth keeping an eye on if only to see where the tech industry is heading. With that in mind, today sees some figures that point to Intel and AMD facing some less than happy days ahead.

Shares of the pair of chipmakers feel sharply yesterday after analysts downgraded both companies stocks, warning that “once-robust personal computer sales were quickly deteriorating”.

Barclays Capital analyst Tim Luke downgraded shares of AMD to “equal weight” from “overweight” (which is a bad thing in finance as opposed to a good thing in day-to-day life) giving the reason that PC shipments have remained “subdued” in the last few months.

Similarly, analysts at ‘wealth management’ company Robert W Baird downgraded Intel‘s shares to “neutral” from “outperform”. CNN reports that the Baird analysts noted a “sharp deterioration” in PC orders over the first week of August after July’s shipments came in lower than expected.

Analysts at JPMorgan used perhaps the most forceful language, saying that PC order rates in Taiwan were “falling off a cliff,” deteriorating sharply during the last part of July. JPMorgan lowered its full-year earnings-per-share outlook on Intel by 6 cents to $1.95 but kept its rating at “neutral”.

As recently as July, Intel and AMD reported strong second quarters on the back of booming PC sales, with Intel reporting its “best quarter ever.” Those reports had raised the hopes of tech companies and investors that consumers and businesses were once again buying computers. But that tide seems to be shifting, and analysts noted that PC manufacturers have begun to scale back their orders from suppliers.

After all this, shares of Intel fell 4% to $19.82 yesterday while AMD’s stock dropped 8% to $6.83. Meanwhile, other companies reliant on PC sales fell as well. Nvidia sank 4%, Microsoft and Apple fell less than 2%, and Dell fell nearly 4%.

Baird’s Tristan Gerra added: “Our checks point to a sharp deceleration in PC order trends continuing into August, after a below-expectation July month. Hopes of a meaningful recovery for the September month are less and less likely, in our view, leading to a likely below-expectation third quarter.”