During midday trading, the Russell 2000 is one of few indices in the green, up 0.77%, however trading remains volatile, with the market popping back off a 3% mid-morning slide fairly quickly. Today’s small-cap gainers are Encore Acquisiton (NYSE:EAC), Targanta Therapeutics (Nasdaq:TARG) and China TechFaith (Nasdaq:CNTF). Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The industrial production report released this morning pegged output down 2.8%; the forecast was for -0.8%.
• The best performing areas today are coal, education services, agriculture products, footwear companies, food retail firms, airlines, gas utilities and steel stocks. 
• On the downside, life health insurers, gold, paper products, auto manufacturers, asset mngt. firms, and Internet retail stocks were all taking a hit. 
• Crude oil extends slide after inventory data, dips below $70.
• The credit crisis is forcing many European firms valued at >$1.5B to end their publicly traded status, Bloomberg reports.
• The CBOE Volatility Index (a good indicator of the level of fear in the markets) hits a record high.
• The market continues to slide after the Philly Fed diffusion index fell to -37.5 in Oct. from +3.8 in Sept., its largest 1-month decline ever. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• Targanta Therapeutics Corp. (Nasdaq:TARG) is up 49% on light volume, bouncing off a test of move lows.
• Encore Acquisition (NYSE:EAC) jumps 24% on Q3 operating results and authorization for the repurchase of an additional $40 million in stock.
• Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:MIPI) is up 21%, basically trying to recover losses from Wednesday’s big decline.
• Deltek Inc. (Nasdaq:PROJ) announced preliminary results. Shares . . .

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