Small caps close higher; TGA, RXII and ANEN lead gainers

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) managed to end Monday in the green, rising 1.28% at closing. Some of today’s small-cap gainers were TransGlobe Energy Corporation (NYSE:TGA), RXi Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:EAT) and Anaren Inc. (Nasdaq:ANEN).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• Existing home sales came in at an annual rate of 4.74M units, above the forecast of 4.4M. Sales were up 6.5%, compared with a slide of 9.4% in Nov.
• Leading indicators came in at +0.3%, better than the projection for -0.3%. This marked the first rise in leading indicators since June 2008.
• For the New Year, the Russell is now down 9.9%, while the Dow is off 7.5% and the S&P 500 is down 7.3%.
• Commodities in general rose slightly on the day, with the Commodity Research Bureau Index up 0.6%. 
• The biggest percentage movers today were dominated by small banks and financial institutions (the KBW Banking Index tumbled 1.7%). 
• Looking at the chart picture for small caps, the market is basically waffling up and down in the range set on Obama’s inauguration day.
• The market will get more information on the housing sector via Thursday’s . . .

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