Big opening jump on tap for small caps

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) is poised for a sizable opening leap today following a bout of overnight gains as investors embraced earnings news from big-name companies like Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) and Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG). In after-hours trading, the Russell was up about 1.2%, which would translate to a cash opening for the Russell in the 716 zone.

The manufacturing sector has been a worry spot of late, fueled by slumping economic conditions, but Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON) and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) both released earnings above the forecast, so the good news this morning was multi-pronged — tied to financials, technology and manufacturing.

Another positive development overnight was a jump in the U.S. dollar, which climbed about 0.8% versus the euro, and 1.5% versus the Japanese yen. In addition, gold slumped about 3% and crude oil backed down a couple of dollars from Thursday’s record highs.

Citigroup jumped some 6% overnight even though it posted a bigger-than-forecast loss, but investors took the banking giant on good faith that . . .

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