Mild opening dip seen in small caps; techs up overnight

Small-cap stocks are expected to open flat to slightly lower as the market pauses to evaluate Tuesday’s big rally. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was off about 0.1% in after-hours trading, which would suggest an open near 720.00.

Without any key economic data to jolt the market today, investors will likely focus on earnings news and gyrations in crude oil prices. Crude oil prices were up slightly overnight, rising some $0.30 to pull above $119 dollars a barrel awaiting weekly inventory numbers later this morning. The market is anticipating a build of about 300,000 barrels in crude stocks on the report, which will be released around 10:35 a.m. ET.

On the big-cap earnings front, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) topped the forecast and rallied in after-hours trading, providing a lift to the tech arena, which was reflected in a 7-handle positive spread in overnight trading between the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. CSCO shares were up over 6% overnight, tugging other tech bellwethers like Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) and Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL) into positive territory as well. If recent history holds up, small-cap stocks tend to outperform the Dow and S&P 500 on days when tech stocks are doing well relative to the other large-cap products...

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