Techs weigh down small caps

Will Atkinson | Jul 18, 2008 1:57pm EDT | Comment

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Small-cap stocks are stumbling in Friday afternoon trading, pulled down by profit-taking ahead of the weekend from money traders who caught the bounce this week and by weak earnings in the tech sector. At 1:54 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 5.65, or 0.81%, at 690.98.

Despite the rise in financials led by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), techs were on the defensive this afternoon, paced by losses in Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) and Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), both of which reported earnings that disappointed investors.

The greenback is up against the yen, but down against the dollar. A positive reaction to Citibank’s results seemed to boost the U.S. dollar briefly. Crude oil is up to $129.90 in recent trading.

Broad market sectors on the rise this afternoon included casinos, technology retailers, construction raw materials, money center banks and trucking companies. On the downside, catalog and mail-order retailers, grocery stores, coal, insurance, and audio and video equipment companies were experiencing a sell-off.

Small-cap stocks on the move this afternoon include airline holding company Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (Nasdaq:PNCL), which is up more 36% after announcing after the close on Thursday it had extended its agreement with Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL). Brookings, S.D.-based ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE:VSE) was upgraded early Friday by UBS to “buy” from “neutral,” sending shares up more than 25%. AMCOL International Corporation (NYSE:ACO) has jumped 19% in today’s trading after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results. The specialty mineral producer reported ahead of the bell that 2008 second-quarter net income was $17.8 million, or $0.58 per share, compared with $14.9 million, or $0.48 a share, for the same quarter a year earlier. Wall Street was expecting a profit of $0.51 per share. United Airlines Inc.’s holding company UAL Corporation (Nasdaq:UAUA) is also among small-cap gainers — jumping 10% in the afternoon session — after analysts at J.P. Morgan upgraded the company before the opening to “overweight” from “underweight.”

On the downside, LaBranche & Co., Inc. (NYSE:LAB) is down almost 8% in afternoon trading after the New York City-based broker-dealer said early Friday that its second-quarter loss narrowed to $21.3 million, or $0.34 per share, versus a loss of $368.9 million, or $6 per share, a year earlier. On a pro forma basis, the firm earned $1.7 million, or $0.03 per share, which fell short of Wall Street’s expectation of earning $0.04 per share. Light scanning technology manufacturer Microvision Inc. (Nasdaq:MVIS) is off 19% today after announcing a public offering of 11.2 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 6.7 million shares of its common stock. SemGroup Energy Partners LP (Nasdaq:SGLP) is plunging 36% to a 52-week low today after announcing after the close Thursday that its parent company, Semgroup LP, is having liquidity problems and could seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.