Russell closes in the red; DRYS, EXM and EGLE lead gainers

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) reversed course Tuesday, unable to sustain upward momentum from Monday’s surge as weakness in financial and homebuilder stocks and numbing results from the Treasury four-week bill auction overwhelmed support from energy and a surprising upside midday spurt on tech stocks. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are DryShips (Nasdaq:DRYS), Excel Maritime Carriers (NYSE:EXM) and Eagle Bulk Shipping (Nasdaq:EGLE).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• For the year, the Dow is now down 34%, while the S&P 500 is down 39%.
• The pending home sales report showed a decline of 0.7% in October. 
• Earlier this morning, the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index was down 0.8% for the week on a year-over-year basis.
• Today’s pullback in the stock market comes as a logical “breather” following an impressive two-day run that lifted equities to four-week highs.
• Top performers so far today: aluminum, steel, coal, oil and gas drillers, semiconductors, life insurers and automotive retailers.
• Poorest performers today: real estate investment trusts, air freight couriers, food retail firms and railroads.
• Even though physical commodity prices were soft today, commodity stocks retained a supportive bent for the overall equity market.
• Crude oil prices tumbled $1.64 a barrel, or 3.7% to $42.07, but energy stocks were actually up some 1% into the close.

Small Cap Gainers:

• On the upside of things, dry bulk carriers remained a hot ticket, with Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd. (NYSE:EXM) up 38%, Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq:EGLE) up 37%, DryShips Inc. (Nasdaq:DRYS) up 36% and Safe Bulkers Inc. (NYSE:SB) climbing 22%.
• Exco Resources Inc. (NYSE:XCO) jumped 28% as the oil and natural gas company announced results on the completion of a Louisiana well.
• KMG Chemicals (Nasdaq:KMGB) up 22% after reporting Q1 results . . .

For access to the full article, you must be a registered member - it's FREE.

Already a member? Please log in below