“We now expect Nokia to report significantly lower margins and cash flows in 2012 than we had previously expected,” S&P said. “The outlook is negative, reflecting the possibility of a further downgrade if Nokia fails to stabilize revenues and margins and significantly cut its cash losses.”

Evidently Nokia’s ugly first-quarter loss and 30 percent drop in sales didn’t do much to reassure S&P that the company’s turnaround is a sure thing — even with its relatively well-received new smartphone, the Lumia.

“We still expect revenue from Lumia smartphones to grow over time but not sufficiently to offset a rapid decline in revenue from Symbian-based smartphones over the next few quarters,” S&P analysts said.

Another voice to add to what’s fast becoming a Greek chorus of Nokia doomsayers. The company has been slapped with three nasty credit downgrades in a row.

Earlier in the week, Fitch downgraded Nokia’s long-term credit rating to junk status; last week, Moody’s did the same thing, citing concerns about Nokia’s low-end phone business.

Despite mostly strong results recently, public tech stocks were not spared the red ink that spilled all over yesterday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 5.5 percent.

The result of Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the federal government’s credit rating late Friday, the markets were in turmoil, as investors fled from stocks and presumably were busy stuffing gold doubloons under their mattresses.

Most tech stocks took it especially hard, even those — such as Google and Apple — whose recent financial results were stellar. That’s because investors are waiting for the next quarter shoe to drop with the unwelcome influence of the current economic crisis.

Thus, the carnage, even worse than last week:

Apple, down 5.5 percent today and 11 percent in the last five days.

Google, down 5.7 percent today and 10 percent in the last five days.

Microsoft, down 4.7 percent today and 10.2 percent in the last five days.

EBay, down 8 percent today and 18.4 percent in the last five days.

Amazon, down 4.4 percent today and 12.9 percent in the last five days.

Yahoo, down 5.5 percent today and 15.3 percent in the last five days. (Special note: Yahoo’s shares dove below $11 a share in after-hours trading, closing in on its late-2008 low of $9.39 and making it even tastier takeover bait.)

AOL, down 6.5 percent today and 11 percent in the last five days. (These are also historic lows for the Internet company, which reports its second-quarter earnings tomorrow.)

Demand Media, down 9.7 percent and 17.6 percent in the last five days. (The online content company will also be reporting its Q2 results tomorrow — Demand’s stock is off 63.1 percent since its January IPO.)

Pandora, down 7.6 percent today and 17.2 percent in the last five days.

And, worst of all, LinkedIn, down 17.4 percent today and 27.5 percent in the last five days.

Tanked, in fact, does not nearly describe it.

Earlier this week, analysts at Citigroup (C) and CL King voiced their concerns about the company in the wake of another ugly quarter from carrier partner Sprint (S). Now Standard & Poor’s is doing so as well. In a note to investors today, analyst James Moorman whacked down his price target on the company’s shares to $10 from $12 and reiterated his “Strong Sell rating.

“We believe the upcoming holiday selling season will be very competitive for handset vendors and think Palm could see competitive pressures,” he wrote. “We believe the small price difference between the Pre handset (especially when on sale at third party vendors) and the new lower-end Pixie could limit Pixie sales and confuse consumers during the launch.”
 
Indeed. As I noted here last week the $99 price Sprint has set for the Pixi is identical to the Pre’s on Amazon (AMZN). And the Pre has a faster processor, a better screen, and Wi-Fi support as well.

Not the most desirable circumstances for heading into the holiday season.

An ugly blow for Motorola (MOT). With the economy in a deadspin and stronger rivals like Nokia (NOK) lowering handset sale expectations, things are looking decidedly bleak for the company.

An ugly blow for Motorola (MOT). With the economy in a deadspin and stronger rivals like Nokia (NOK) lowering handset sale expectations, things are looking decidedly bleak for the company.