Russell leaps higher on Friday's opening; AVD, CRYP, and RRGB lead gainers

Small-cap stocks jumped higher on the opening, bolstered by investor hope that yet another government cash infusion into Bank of America will stabilize a shaky situation in the financial arena. Bank stocks, mining companies, chipmakers and automobile manufacturers were up in overseas action, setting the stage for an extension of the bounce in U.S. markets Thursday afternoon. Some of today’s small-cap gainers were American Vanguard Corp.  (NYSE:AVD), Cryptologic (Nasdaq:CRYP) and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (Nasdaq:RRGB).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The yield on benchmark 10-year notes was up 8% early on, climbing back to 2.37% after slipping below 2.2% Thursday.   South Africa, a major exporter of commodity goods, saw their stock market upgraded this morning by Morgan Stanley analysts.  
• Shortly after the open, the greenback was down about 1.4% against the euro, which should help not only crude oil, but a host of commodity markets.  
• Crude oil was lower in European trading ahead of the stock market open, but rallied about $1 a barrel by the opening. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• American Vanguard Corp. will move into the S&P SmallCap 600 index; the agriculture products company rallied 12% on the news. See (NYSE:AVD).  
• Cryptologic up 6% in pre-market after announcing it will outsource its online poker network by end Q1 2009. See (Nasdaq:CRYP). 
• Red Robin Gourmet Burgers up 3.4%, paring some of the dramatics losses the stock saw on Thursday. See (Nasdaq:RRGB).
• Synchronoss Technologies up 2.2% ahead of its Q4 and fully year 2008 earnings release on Feb. 5. See (Nasdaq:SNCR).  

Small Cap Losers:

• Belden Inc. was off 12%, fueled by news that the electronics maker updated the outlook. See (NYSE:BDC).  
• Elizabeth Arden Inc. tumbled 13% as preliminary quarterly results were below expectations and the beauty products firm slashed the outlook for the upcoming quarter. See (Nasdaq:RDEN).  
• Rochester Medical drops 9% after reaching a settlement with Tyco Healthcare Group. See (Nasdaq:ROCM).  
• Meridian Bioscience, Inc. falls 10% in pre-market after issuing Q1 2009 guidance below analysts' expectations. See (Nasdaq:VIVO).

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