Tag - NASDAQGM:TINY

Small-cap stocks remained lower into midday trading, pulled down by renewed jitters over the credit crunch, which weighed on the financial arena and siphoned some money away into safe-haven Treasury instruments. At 12:35 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 3.98, or 0.53% at 749.39. Large-cap index products were attracting more aggressive selling, with the Dow off 0.98% and the S&P 500 down 0.85%.

A weekend story in Barron’s intimating that the Treasury Department would have to recapitalize government-sponsored mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) at the detriment to current shareholders sparked a rout in mortgage financing stocks, with FNM tumbling 13% and FRE also down 13%. Credit default swaps on GSE, or government-sponsored enterprises, debt widened to record highs, which reflects unease with assuming paper on the firms.

The concerns about GSEs cascaded into the entire financial arena, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund down 2.7% and the PHLX KBW Banking Index down almost 3%. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH) tumbled nearly 4% following a report in The Wall Street Journal that the brokerage firm could post $1.8 billion losses and may pre-announce its earnings...

Crocs Inc. (Nasdaq:CROX), Cascade Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:CASB) and Hawthorn Bancshares Inc. (Nasdaq:HWBK) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.    

Also included among the results: MedQuist Inc. (Nasdaq:MEDQ), Protherics  (Nasdaq:PTIL), Cheniere Energy Partners (Nasdaq:CQP), Micromet Inc. (Nasdaq:MITI), Harris & Harris Group Inc. (Nasdaq:TINY) and Primus Guaranty (Nasdaq:PRS).           

Here are the biggest percentage gainers among small caps:    

After opening higher, small-cap stocks slipped into the red and continued to bleed midday, as traders grappled with earnings from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) and a proliferation of economic reports.

At 12:58 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 2.41, or 0.33%, to 738.33, while the Dow is down 80.28, or 0.65%, to 12,188.80

As investors try to take the credit crisis’ latest temperature, Goldman Sachs said this morning that net income slid 11%, while revenues flopped off 7.5%, as the investment bank incurred further credit losses. Although results slipped, they still managed to beat the consensus on Wall Street. Goldman is the second financial house to report this week after Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH). Morgan Stanley is due to report Wednesday.

In sobering economic news, the Producer Price Index, reported this morning, clocked in at 1.4%, above the forecasted rise of 1%. The inflation indicator was fueled higher by an up tick in energy prices of 4.9% and an increase of 0.8% in food. The “core” rate, which excludes food and energy prices, was on target with a gain of 0.2%. Year-over-year, PPI was up 7.2%, marking the eighth consecutive month in which that number was above 6%, which hasn’t happened since 1977 to 1982.

Today’s PPI report comes on the heels of Friday’s CPI report, in which consumer prices jumped up 4.2% year over year.

“No big surprises here,” BMO Capital Markets economist Jennifer Lee wrote in a note today. “But with pipeline pressures showing little or no sign of let-up (intermediate and crude stages), policymakers will continue to keep an eye trained on inflation.”

Indeed, with The Fed’s hawkish comments in the back drop from last week, traders are now factoring in a rate hike of almost as much as 1%.

Also in less-than-welcoming economic news, housing starts came in slightly below expectations at 975,000 units, which marked the worst showing since 1991. Finally, the industrial production report was down 0.2%, well below the median forecast for a rise of 0.1%.

“We're now past the worst of the housing crisis and in the middle of the process of healing,” Andy Busch, global foreign exchange strategist for BMO Capital . . .

Small-cap stocks opened higher, but soon turned red, unable to sustain a run that was triggered overnight on yet another news report that the Federal Reserve was not likely to raise interest rates anytime soon. At 9:55 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 1.92, or 0.26%, at 738.82.

The early buying enthusiasm was stoked by relatively positive earnings numbers from financial and consumer “staple” companies, which basically allowed the market to shrug off sloppy economic data.

Ahead of the opening, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) reported decent earnings — at least compared to market expectations — as did Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS). Best Buy tried to push higher on the opening, but turned lower within 25 minutes, no doubt disappointing bulls who were hoping that BBY gains would ripple throughout the retail sector. The same “rising tide lifts all ships” theory was in play in the financial sector early as Goldman Sachs shares were up 1.2%, soothing ongoing fears about the credit crunch.

The overnight rally barely felt a ripple initially from the Producer Price Index report, which came in above the forecast at 1.4%. The “core” rate, which excludes food and energy prices, was on target with a gain of 0.2%. Given soaring gasoline and corn prices, excluding food and energy when looking at inflation data seems silly, meaning that the headline PPI was not good news. What’s more, the year-over-year PPI number was at 7.2%, which marked the eighth consecutive month in which that number was above 6%, which hasn’t happened since 1977-1982.

Also on the data front, housing starts came in slightly below expectations at 975,000 units, which marked the worst showing since 1991. And finally, the industrial production report was down 0.2%, well below the median forecast for a rise of 0.1%. At first blush, it looked like investors were going to try to ignore the negative . . .

Harris & Harris Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:TINY) a publicly traded venture capital company, said this morning that it will sell approximately 2.54 million shares at $6.15 per share to institutional investors for net proceeds of roughly $14.39 million. The offering is expected to close around June 20.

Shares slide 10%, or $0.74, to $6.84 out of the gate. For detailed price information and recent news stories about Harris & Harris Group, click TINY.

This week, we feature three advisers who see large potential gains from the “smallest” of ideas—nanotechnology. This broad field involves the study and manipulation of matter at an atomic level. Given that this is a new and developing field, investors in nanotech should have a long-term view.

For those willing to incur the higher risks of selecting an individual stock in the nanotech space, we turn to two emerging growth experts. First, Gregg Early, editor of The Real Nanotech Investor, considers Maxwell Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: MXWL), a stock with a market cap of $246 million, among his favorite speculative buys.

“The company specializes in a very arcane field, even by nanotech standards. Maxwell is one of the few companies involved in developing capacitors and increasingly, ultracapacitors,” he said. “This new generation of capacitor has the potential to revolutionize motive and stationary power storage and distribution as we know it.”

According to Early, the company was recently awarded a contract by Mercedes Car Group to design and produce ultracapacitors for an advanced engineering hybrid-electric drive train program that increases fuel efficiency and reduces emissions.

“This is also a very good sign for Maxwell because its new CEO, David Schramm, hails from the auto industry,” he said. “Landing a deal with a major innovator like Mercedes is an optimistic sign of things to come.”

Shares in Bioenvision, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIVN) are trading heavily in pre-market activity on news the New York City-based biopharmaceutical company agreed to be acquired by Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq: GENZ). Genzyme Corp. announced Tuesday morning it agreed to buy Bioenvision for $5.60 per share, or approximately $345 million in cash. The offer is 6.7% above Friday’s closing price, but only $0.01 above Tuesday’s closing price. By purchasing Bioenvision, Genzyme will gain exclusive rights to the leukemia drug clofarabine. Genzyme said in a statement it is looking to broaden the use of clofarabine, which is used to treat children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who have had relapses or failed other treatment.

In pre-market trading, shares in Stratagene Corp. (Nasdaq: STGN) are down $0.01 to $10.84 on Tuesday evening news the company received a notice of a writ of summons filed by Applera Corp. (Nasdaq: ABI). Applera, the Norwalk, Conn.-based biotechnology company, alleges Stratagene, the La Jolla-Calif.-based biotechnology company, infringed upon Applera’s patents in The Netherlands, France and other European countries, according to StreetInsider.com.

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTIC) shares are down $0.10 to $4.92 in pre-market trading. The Seattle-based developer of cancer-fighting drugs announced after the close of trading on Tuesday it will be making a presentation about the lung cancer drug Xyotax at the 43rd American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, being held June 1-5 in Chicago.

The following are the most actively traded companies in pre-market trading among those with market capitalizations under $500 million:

To fully understand the value of the advice given by Josh Wolfe, one must consider his background. With degrees in economics and finance from Cornell, Josh worked at Salomon Smith Barney's investing banking group before co-founding Lux Capital, a nanotech venture capital firm. (Some readers may recognize the name Lux through its role in the Powershares Lux Nanotech ETF.)

Particularly impressive is the fact that Josh was one of just 10 nanotech industry leaders invited to the White House for President Bush’s official signing of the $8 billion nanotech funding bill in 2003.

The reasons for emphasizing Wolfe’s background are two fold. First, his industry expertise strongly supports the basis for paying heed to the advice he shares in his newsletter, The Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report.

Second, as a venture capitalist in the nanotech space, Wolfe is particularly well suited to analyze the specific recommendation we are discussing in this column -- Harris & Harris (Nasdaq: TINY), a publicly traded nanotech venture capital fund.