Telecom Stocks Get Smacked

Telecom-related stocks plummeted Monday as the major averages reached multi-year lows following more fears of the spreading credit crisis.

Fears of a massive global slowdown heated up over the weekend as leaders from France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. met Saturday and agreed to coordinate efforts to prevent failures in Europe's financial system.

Despite having a $700-billion rescue plan in place, fear swept over Wall Street that financial markets would seize, affecting any company that depends on banks to keep floating money.

Investors quickly fled from equities to the so-called safe haven of credit markets, sending shares lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below the 10,000 threshold for the first time in nearly four years and both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down more than 4% each.

Handset makers were hit especially hard, as Nokia (NOK Quote - Cramer on NOK - Stock Picks) slipped 8.5%, Motorola (MOT Quote - Cramer on MOT - Stock Picks) was falling 8% and Ericsson (ERIC Quote - Cramer on ERIC - Stock Picks) lost 7.4%.

Among high-end device makers, Research in Motion (RIMM Quote - Cramer on RIMM - Stock Picks) gave back nearly 10%, Palm (PALM Quote - Cramer on PALM - Stock Picks) was losing 9% and Apple (AAPL Quote - Cramer on AAPL - Stock Picks) was down 6%.

Network equipment makers also saw shares slide dramatically. Nortel Networks (NT Quote - Cramer on NT - Stock Picks) lost 13%, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU Quote - Cramer on ALU - Stock Picks) slid 11.6%, Cisco Systems (CSCO Quote - Cramer on CSCO - Stock Picks) tumbled 5% and Juniper Networks (JNPR Quote - Cramer on JNPR - Stock Picks) was off 3%.

U.S. wireless carriers were also losing ground. AT&T (T Quote - Cramer on T - Stock Picks) gave back 4.2%, Verizon (VZ Quote - Cramer on VZ - Stock Picks) fell 4.1% and Sprint Nextel (S Quote - Cramer on S - Stock Picks) dipped 0.5%. Deutsche Telekom (DT Quote - Cramer on DT - Stock Picks), meanwhile, fell 1.7%.

Cable and satellite operators were also hit hard. Sirius XM (SIRI Quote - Cramer on SIRI - Stock Picks) dropped nearly 14%, Cablevision (CVC Quote - Cramer on CVC - Stock Picks) dropped 8.7%, Dish Network (DISH Quote - Cramer on DISH - Stock Picks) was down 5.9% and Comcast (CMCSA Quote - Cramer on CMCSA - Stock Picks) slid 2.2%.