HP's quarterly financial report Wednesday did not help the case for tech stocks, in particular. The report was one of most anticipated of the season, since the company is the world's biggest IT vendor and has received kudos for managing costs during the recession. Though HP's profit of US$1.7 billion for the quarter ending April 30 was in line with expectations, revenue declined by 3 percent to $27.4 billion. In a conference call, HP Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd said that from what he has been hearing from customers, it is unlikely that corporate IT purchasing patterns will change much for the rest of the year.

On Thursday, PC maker Lenovo issued results that were a drastic fall from a year ago. For the quarter through March, Lenovo suffered a loss of $264 million, plunging from a profit of $140 million a year earlier. Revenue was $2.8 billion, down from $3.7 billion. In a sign of how the PC market has been faring, Lenovo's quarterly loss more than doubled from the prior quarter.

In the mobile phone market, several surveys this week showed plunging sales and shipments. Mobile phone shipments declined 8.6 percent worldwide to 269.1 million units during the first quarter, according to a Gartner report Wednesday. For its part, market researcher Ovum issued a report Monday that said that the economic downturn will have a significant impact on mobile phone shipments. Ovum said shipments would be down by 9.1 percent for the year.

The one bright spot is smartphones, where Gartner said shipments actually increased by 12.7 percent during the first quarter.

This year has witnessed the collapse of the market for mid-tier handsets, .