S&P; sees a “prolonged electronics recession.”

The debt rating agency also predicted that its downgrades of debt ratings of high-tech companies will continue to outpace its upgrades into 1987. So far this year, Standard & Poor’s has downgraded 13 debt ratings in the high-tech sector and upgraded only two, reflecting its concerns about the ability of the companies to repay their debts on schedule. The recent anti-dumping rulings against Japanese makers of memory chips should give U.S. semiconductor makers some relief on prices, but customers are still likely to buy their chips overseas, giving U.S. companies a “very low” share of the market, S&P; said.