Just how bad are the numbers? Well, as bad as the economic slowdown has been this year, I am afraid we're staring down the barrel of something even more odious. According to our proprietary survey data, things are getting worse at a blistering pace, and they'll likely continue getting worse -- at least through the first quarter of the new year.

My view of the economic woes comes from our ChangeWave Research quarterly IT spending survey, which showed an even-greater pullback occurring in corporate spending -- both for the current quarter and for the next 90 days.

Combine that IT spending data with our first look at the corporate quarterly spending results, and you get a pretty dreadful outlook for corporate America going forward -- and, I suspect, a correspondingly rough ride ahead for the already-bruised-and-battered equity markets.