Techs Lag Blue Chip Rally

Good news from GM , McDonald’s and Countrywide Financial sent blue chip stocks soaring Thursday, but tech stocks lagged after Alcatel Lucent warned.

Alcatel Lucent shares fell 9% after the company said it expects growth to be flat to slightly up, below its previous guidance of mid-single digit growth.

The company said its new guidance is “based on the most recent and updated discussions with some wireless customers in North America. Alcatel-Lucent is now seeing a change in capital spending with those customers in 2007 compared to what it had anticipated. As a result, the company is not seeing the projected volume changes that would have mitigated the ongoing pricing pressures it is experiencing.”

Alcatel Lucent said other regions and businesses, particularly wireline, enterprise and Asia-Pacific, were strong, and the company said it plans to accelerate its post-merger restructuring plans.

Intel and Cisco were two other big tech names finishing in the red, and Juniper Networks lost ground on its analyst day.

Qualcomm gained on a favorable patent ruling.

Aspen Tech rose after hiking guidance, while Syntax-Brillian plunged on its results.

The Nasdaq rose 9 to 2601, the S&P 500 gained 12 to 1483, and the Dow surged 133 to 13,424. Volume rose to 2.91 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 1.7 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancing issues led by an 18-13 margin on the NYSE, and 15-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 73% on the NYSE, and 56% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 70-118 on the NYSE, and 85-89 on the Nasdaq.

Note: The Technical Analysis column is on a brief hiatus and will return shortly.