Analyst Brian Piccioni of BMO Capital Markets noted that the company's unexpected preannouncement came just a week before its scheduled earnings report, adding that some analysts were expecting Intel to report at the low end of its earlier outlook. "Turns out it wasn't," he said. "It's a question of degrees. Did anybody expect an upside surprise from Intel? No." But he added, "There's a lot of moving parts at this juncture. It's not a surprise that the U.S. consumer is not in a buying mood. It's quite clear that demand is softer across the board."