Russell in the red; LTM, USG, and MR lead gainers

Small-cap stocks opened higher but quickly slipped into negative territory, as a bounce in banking and commodity stocks and a rise in overseas equities was countered by weak profit reports for a raft of small-cap firms. The market is clearly oversold following dramatic losses this week, which could power a pre-weekend short-covering bounce, but fear about the slumping global economy remains a big part of negative investor psychology. Today’s small-cap gainers are Life Time Fitness Inc.  (NYSE:LTM), USG Corporation. (NYSE:USG) and Mindray Medical (NYSE:MR).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• Researchers at Goldman Sachs today said that the upcoming November employment report will be the worst yet for 2008.   Nov 21, 2008 10:10am
•  It should be noted that any improvement today still comes against a backdrop of one of the worst stock market declines in history.   Nov 21, 2008 10:09am
• The U.S. dollar was down about 1% against the euro, which was also seen as a mild bullish element for commodities in general.   Nov 21, 2008 10:08am
• This week has seen massive flight to safe haven ports, out of stocks, which drove yields on Treasury products to historically low levels.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Life Time Fitness Inc. rose 24% on a bounce from 52-week lows forged Thursday. See (NYSE:LTM).  
• USG Corporation announces agreement to sell $400M of contingent convertible senior notes; shares climb 23%. See (NYSE:USG).
• Shares of Shares of Mindray Medical are climbing 18% this morning on very light volume. See (NYSE:MR).  
• Quicksilver Resources up over 17% after board approves $600 million capital budget for 2009. See (NYSE:KWK).  

Small Cap Losers:

• Foot Locker Inc. collapsed 42% as the athletic shoe retailer missed earnings projections. See (NYSE:FL).
• Flow International announces departure of CFO Douglas Fletcher; shares careen 28%. (Nasdaq:FLOW).  
• Celanese Corp. plummets 25% after Citigroup downgrades the small cap to "hold." See (NYSE:CE).  
• Joy Global Inc. down 5% in pre-market after shares tumbled 17.56% on Thursday. See (Nasdaq:JOYG).

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