Microsoft Investors, You Have Been Warned

Updated from 2:42 p.m. EST

SAN FRANCISCO -- With Intel(INTC Quote) tearing down fourth-quarter revenue expectations for the second time due to an arid global PC market, how are you feeling about any near-term upside in Microsoft(MSFT Quote) shares?

The software maker's stock did take its requisite hit of 3% to $20.13 off the Intel news, falling even further to $19.51 by day's end, but investors are now forced to determine if a similar adjustment to longer-term expectations has to be made.

The warning from Intel, which said Wednesday that revenue in its fourth quarter will now fall 23% from a year ago to $8.2 billion -- a mere half-billion below what Wall Street analysts had expected -- wasn't a complete surprise. ...