Week starts out low for small-cap stocks; HBAN, AMRI, and VOLC lead gainers

Small-cap stocks edged slightly lower early today, pulled down by sloppy corporate profit results and mild concern that the roll out of the bank bail out plan was pushed back this week. Some of today’s small-cap gainers were Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq:HBAN), Albany Molecular Research (Nasdaq:AMRI) and Volcano Corp.  (Nasdaq:VOLC).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The U.S. dollar was off about 0.9% against the euro this morning, providing a lift to commodities that are priced in dollar terms.   
• Crude oil futures climbed about $1 a barrel into the stock market open, providing a lift to energy and commodity stocks early.  
• Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is slated to have a press conference on the bank plan Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. ET.
• The official excuse for the bank rescue delay was that the Administration wanted to focus attention on the stimulus plan vote.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Huntington Bancshares rises 22% as many regional banks saw a rise today. See (Nasdaq:HBAN).  
• Albany Molecular Research turns around to profit in Q4; shares rise over 13%. See (Nasdaq:AMRI).  
• Volcano Corp. rose 7% as the market of heart products gapped higher without any apparent fresh news behind the move. See (Nasdaq:VOLC).

Small Cap Losers:

• Insight Enterprises Inc. tumbled nearly 16% as the IT firm announced preliminary quarterly results. See (Nasdaq:NSIT).  
• Global Traffic Network Inc. was off 10% as the traffic report specialist took a hit after releasing profit numbers for the quarter. See (Nasdaq:GNET). 
• AMERISAFE Inc. gapped lower and lost 10% as the workers’ comp firm said they would conduct a governance review. See (Nasdaq:AMSF).

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