Russell opens in the red; CEA, ZNH, and AMLN lead gainers

A bleak picture of the nation’s employment picture sparked a solid opening decline for small-cap stocks. Bearish momentum was furthered by a batch of weak profit reports and outlooks for various companies, but another firm tone in commodities offered up support. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd. (NYSE:CEA), China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. (NYSE:ZNH) and Amylin Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:AMLN).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The International Trade report also came out this morning and the deficit widened to $57.19 billion, well above the forecast for a deficit of $53.5 billion.  
• The number of continuing claims, which tracks people who are out of work and just can’t a job, rose to 4.429M, above the 4.1M forecast  
• Energy stocks were a dominant force on Wed.'s rally, will be closely watched today to see if commodities can carry the bullish banner again.  
• The unemployment figure marked not just a high for the current economic crisis, but was the biggest number in 26 years. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd. soared 56% after the Chinese government served up an aid plan for airlines. See (NYSE:CEA).  
• China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. is up 33% on Chinese government aid news. See (NYSE:ZNH).   
• Amylin Pharmaceuticals up 11.11% in pre-market after reaffirming plans for Exenatide Once Weekly NDA submission by end of first half of 2009. See (Nasdaq:AMLN). 
• Silver Standard up 8% in pre-market after it reports successful follow-up diamond drilling at Maverick Springs. See (Nasdaq:SSRI). 

Small Cap Losers:

• Gildan Activewear Inc. collapsed 43% as the sports apparel maker badly missed profit expectations. See (NYSE:GIL).  
• Pain Therapeutics gapped lower and shed 25% as the FDA turned down the firm’s experimental pain killer drug. See (Nasdaq:PTIE).  
• Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell 19% on news that AstraZeneca decided to ditch two of Infinity’s experimental cancer drugs. See (Nasdaq:INFI).
• Retailer lululemon Athletica Inc. releases Q4 results, guides below estimates. Shares fall 18% in pre-market. See (Nasdaq:LULU).

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