Cisco Systems (CSCO) after the close yesterday posted stunningly good results for its January quarter, and provided April quarter guidance that was way above Street expectations. CEO John Chambers could not have sounded more optimistic about the quarter and the outlook if he tried; he said the company saw a broad-based recovery across all geographies and product sectors. The company is seeing continued improvement in enterprise spending, a surprise surge in demand from carriers, and a turnaround in Europe, which has been lagging an IT spending recovery in the U.S.

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This morning, the Street churned out some more research filled with fretting over what CEO John Chambers is going to say tomorrow about the company’s prospects for growth in the January quarter and beyond. While the company has previously forecast growth for the January quarter in the 7.5 to 9.5 percent range, the Street is increasingly convinced that Cisco is going to bring numbers down. The question is how far down will they go – and how long will the downturn last.

Merrill Lynch analyst Tal Liani this morning said that the Street is looking for Cisco “to report weak results and provide weak guidance.” He notes that normally wide spread nervousness would be a good thing – but that this time around he remains cautious, and worries that “near-term trends could still be worse than expected.” Liani notes that demand for both high-end and low-end switches has weakened “considerably,” with growing price pressure.

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