Sector Snap: Telecom gear stocks down

Shares of Alcatel-Lucent were down 66 cents, or 15 percent, to $3.67 in afternoon trading. They went as low as $3.60 earlier in the day, lower than they've been since 2002, in the aftermath of the Internet bubble.

Motorola Inc. shares were down 70 cents, or 9 percent, at $6.93. The day's low of $6.77 was just above the multi-decade low of $6.52 set Sept. 18.

The stock of Ciena Corp., which makes optical systems, fell $1.40, or 12 percent, to $10.21, but held above the all-time low of $9.52 set Sept. 18.

Nortel Networks Corp. shares were down 25 cents, or 10 percent, at $2.29. The intraday low of $2.27 was the lowest since at least the early 1980s.

On Monday morning, before the latest round of market mayhem, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue reduced his price target on Alcatel-Lucent, saying customer Verizon Wireless was pointing to declines in capital expenditures, while Sprint Nextel Corp. appeared to be focused on selling its Nextel network rather than upgrading the Sprint part, for which Alcatel-Lucent is a supplier.