Small caps dive at closing; CRI, VASC and BGH lead gainers

SCI Microbloggers | Oct 22, 2008 4:48pm EDT | Comment

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Small caps dove 5.43% on Wednesday, marking the second-lowest close in five years (both of those closes have taken place within the last three weeks). Today’s small-cap gainers are Carter’s Inc. (NYSE:CRI), Vascular (Nasdaq:VASC) and BGH GP Holdings (NYSE:BGH).

Other Market Watch highlights today include:

• The Russell is now down 33.4% for 2008, while the Dow is off 36.36% and the S&P 500 is down 38%.
• Concerns that consumer spending and a global growth stall will pinch corporate profits even more in the months to come clearly had a negative impact on stocks.
• Commodity firms dominated the list of worst performing sectors today, paced by metal and mining shares, coal stocks, oil and gas drillers, aluminum and gold.
• The headline news on the commodity front was clearly crude oil, which collapsed 7.5%, or more than $5 a barrel and is now back below $67 — down some 54% from the summer peak.
• Other sectors taking a body blow today included motorcycle manufacturers, restaurants, tobacco companies and internet retail stocks.
• The slide in commodities was reflected by a huge decline in the Commodity Research Bureau Index, which tumbled 4.5% to the lowest point since August 2004.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Children's apparel market Carter's Inc. raised to "buy" from "hold;" reports solid Q3 results. Shares closed up over 13%. See (NYSE:CRI).
• Vascular jumped 15% after Q3 EPS beat the Street by 57%, as the medical device company reported double digit sales growth. (Nasdaq:VASC).
• Tupperware up 14% after posting Q3 profit that nearly quadrupled and stating plans to buy back $50 million in shares. See (NYSE:TUP).
• BGH GP Holdings up 17% after stating that it made a buyout offer for Buckeye GP’s remaining shares for $17 per share. See (NYSE:BGH).

Small Cap Losers:

• Telecom Argentina SA stock was hammered Tuesday and was down another 32% today. See (NYSE:TEO).
• Titan Machinery Inc. slumped 21%, making new lows for the move along with the rest of the market. See (Nasdaq:TITN).
• Oilsands Quest closes down 14% as the price of oil nosedives today. See (AMEX:BQI).
• Brazilian homebuilder Gafisa S.A. craters 22% on no fresh news. See (NYSE:GFA).