A high close on Monday; IESC, BTH and VOL lead gainers

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) rose higher at closing, outpacing many large-cap indices that slumped on weak financial and energy stocks. Some of today’s small-cap gainers were Integrated Electrical Services (Nasdaq:IESC), Blyth (NYSE:BTH) and Volt Information (NYSE:VOL).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The personal income data came in at minus 0.2%, which was slightly below the forecast for a decline of 0.3%.
• For the year, personal income was up 3.7%, which marked the smallest rise since 2003. 
• The ISM Manufacturing Survey came in at 35.6, which was a little better than the projection of 33, but still historically low.
• For the year, the Russell is down 9.9%, while the Dow is off 9.5% and the S&P 500 is down 8.6%.
• The tech-laden Nasdaq 100 advanced 1.3% on the day, with semiconductor stocks, systems software manufacturers and telecoms leading the way.
• It was interesting to see small caps diverge away from energy stocks today, as the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund fell 1.6%.
• More often than not, small caps tend to track energy trends fairly closely, partly because of all the small-cap energy firms in play.
• The U.S. dollar started out the day higher against the euro, but gave back those gains by the close. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• Integrated Electrical Services Inc. jumped 26% ahead of earnings news slated to come after Monday’s close. See (Nasdaq:IESC).
• Blyth Inc. staged an impressive bullish key reversal by making new lows for the move then storming higher on unusually brisk volume. The home fragrance . . .

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