Ciena Leads Tech Stocks Lower

A revenue warning from Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) and other bad news from the telecom sector weighed on tech stocks on Thursday.

Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) plunged 20% after the company missed estimates and lowered current quarter sales guidance, citing a “challenging macroeconomic and industry environment.”

BCE (NYSE: BCE) lost ground on news that its one-time $50 billion buyout had fallen through.

And Nortel (NYSE: NT) was unchanged on news that its stock may face delisting. The company’s shares fell Wednesday on a Wall Street Journal report that it has begun to explore the possibility of bankruptcy if its restructuring plan doesn’t work. The company had $2.7 billion on hand as of Sept. 30 and $4.5 billion in debt. It burned through $767 million in the September quarter.

The broader market tumbled on worries that the Senate won’t pass a bailout of automakers, a big spike in weekly jobless claims and downbeat comments from JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon.

Jabil (NYSE: JBL) fell 9% on a Citigroup downgrade ahead of the company’s Dec. 19 earnings report.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) fell 5.6% after Morgan Stanley lowered estimates on the software giant.

Seagate (NYSE: STX) and Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) fell after Calyon Securities lowered estimates on the drive makers.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) lost 6% on a Merrill Lynch downgrade.

Cadence Design (NASDAQ: CDNS) fell 22% on its outlook, but Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) gained 6% despite lowering its guidance.

The Nasdaq fell 57 to 1507, the S&P lost 25 to 873, and the Dow fell 196 to 8565. Volume rose to 6.25 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.08 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 28-10 margin on the NYSE, and 21-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 84% on the NYSE, and 87% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 12-119 on the NYSE, and 4-87 on the Nasdaq.