Small-cap stocks are stumbling in Friday afternoon trading, pulled down by profit-taking ahead of the weekend from money traders who caught the bounce this week and by weak earnings in the tech sector. At 1:54 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 5.65, or 0.81%, at 690.98.

Despite the rise in financials led by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), techs were on the defensive this afternoon, paced by losses in Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) and Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), both of which reported earnings that disappointed investors.

The greenback is up against the yen, but down against the dollar. A positive reaction to Citibank’s results seemed to boost the U.S. dollar briefly. Crude oil is up to $129.90 in recent trading.

Broad market sectors on the rise this afternoon included casinos, technology retailers, construction raw materials, money center banks and trucking companies. On the downside, catalog and mail-order retailers, grocery stores, coal, insurance, and audio and video equipment companies were experiencing a sell-off.

Small-cap stocks on the move this afternoon include airline holding company Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (Nasdaq:PNCL), which is up more 36% after announcing after the close on Thursday it had extended its agreement with Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL). Brookings, S.D.-based ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE:VSE) was upgraded early Friday by UBS to “buy” from “neutral,” sending shares up more than 25%. AMCOL International Corporation (NYSE:ACO) has jumped 19% in today’s trading after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results. The specialty mineral producer reported ahead of the bell that 2008 . . .

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