Even though the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed up over 5% today, small caps still tumbled to fresh bear market lows earlier in the day and closed out the week at the lowest point since April 2003. From a charting perspective, it’s important to note that the market is oversold on momentum readings heading toward a holiday week, which could have played a supportive role in today’s action. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are Pan American Silver (Nasdaq:PAAS), Hughes Communications (Nasdaq:HUGH) and Bank of Ireleand (NYSE:IRE).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• For today, small caps were up 5.51%, but are still down 47% for the year. The Dow closed up 6.54% and the S&P 500 was up 6.32%.
• Researchers at Goldman Sachs today said that the upcoming November employment report will be the worst yet for 2008.
• The market rallied into positive territory late in the day on news that Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, was tabbed by President-elect Obama as the new Treasury Secretary
• Financial stocks were a dominant drag on the market for most of today’s action until the last 30 minutes when the rally kicked off. 
• Energy stocks were leading the market today, but the move seemed much more pronounced on the big-cap ledger. The Energy Select Sector SPDR was up some 10% today.
• Crude oil prices edged higher today, gaining $0.51 a barrel, or about 1%, while recovering from a slide to 3 1/2-year lows.
• The highlight on the economic calendar next week will likely be Tuesday’s GDP report, which is expected to show the nation’s economy contracted by 0.5% in the third quarter.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Gold and silver rallied today, and Pan American Silver Corp. (Nasdaq:PAAS) and Silver Standard Resources Inc. (Nasdaq:SSRI) both enjoyed the ride, up 30% and 24%, respectively.
• Hughes Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:HUGH) rose 33% as the . . .

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