Tag - NYSE:KWK

Small-cap stocks opened higher but quickly slipped into negative territory, as a bounce in banking and commodity stocks and a rise in overseas equities was countered by weak profit reports for a raft of small-cap firms. The market is clearly oversold following dramatic losses this week, which could power a pre-weekend short-covering bounce, but fear about the slumping global economy remains a big part of negative investor psychology. Today’s small-cap gainers are Life Time Fitness Inc.  (NYSE:LTM), USG Corporation. (NYSE:USG) and Mindray Medical (NYSE:MR).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• Researchers at Goldman Sachs today said that the upcoming November employment report will be the worst yet for 2008.   Nov 21, 2008 10:10am
•  It should be noted that any improvement today still comes against a backdrop of one of the worst stock market declines in history.   Nov 21, 2008 10:09am
• The U.S. dollar was down about 1% against the euro, which was also seen as a mild bullish element for commodities in general.   Nov 21, 2008 10:08am
• This week has seen massive flight to safe haven ports, out of stocks, which drove yields on Treasury products to historically low levels.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Life Time Fitness Inc. rose 24% on a bounce from 52-week lows forged Thursday. See (NYSE:LTM).  
• USG Corporation announces agreement to sell $400M of contingent convertible senior notes; shares climb 23%. See (NYSE:USG).
• Shares of Shares of Mindray Medical are climbing 18% this morning on very light volume. See (NYSE:MR).  
• Quicksilver Resources up over 17% after board approves $600 million capital budget for 2009. See (NYSE:KWK).  

Small Cap Losers:

• Foot Locker Inc. collapsed 42% as the athletic shoe retailer missed earnings projections. See (NYSE:FL).
• Flow International announces departure of CFO Douglas Fletcher; shares careen 28%. (Nasdaq:FLOW).  
• Celanese Corp. plummets 25% after Citigroup downgrades the small cap to "hold." See (NYSE:CE).  
• Joy Global Inc. down 5% in pre-market after shares tumbled 17.56% on Thursday. See (Nasdaq:JOYG).

Small-cap stocks remained lower into midday trading, but were also well off the morning lows as oversold conditions, erratic bargain-hunting, firm tech and retail stocks helped limit some of the gloom surrounding the latest economic news. The market continued to fret about the fate of domestic automakers, and continued to suffer money flow exit into safe-haven docks. At 12:24 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 3.93, or 0.95%, at 408.45.

The U.S. trading session started off on a sour note as the latest weekly unemployment claims spiked to 542,000, which marked the highest point in 16 years. Continuing claims, which represent people unable to find work, rose to 4.012 million, the highest point in 26 years. The labor market is bleak right now, and expected to get even worse over the next couple of months, the only debate is whether or not the economic “bad news” is already factored into the historic collapse in stocks. Since the Russell this morning plunged to the lowest point since May 2003, the immediate answer seems to be “no.” Still, there plenty of market watchers out there who believe that bad economic data is not a surprise and that valuations are very attractive; if the market will only get past the current crisis of confidence, then things could turn very quickly.

Of course, it’s easier said than done. Investors with cash left are piling it into credit products, regardless of how terrible the yield might be. This has become an epic week for Treasury products, with yields on 2-year notes sinking to record lows, while the benchmark 10-year note today tumbled to the lowest point in more than 5 years. The mentality in play seems to be “right now, protect my money; I’ll look for returns down the road.”

Crude oil prices tumbled below $50 a barrel, reaching the lowest point since May 2005 and energy stocks were taking a beating today, acting as a major drag on index products. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund was off 6.7% at . . .

These days, if you’re buying a house in or around Forth Worth, Texas, negotiations with your realtor probably won’t just revolve around marble tiling, slate roofs and granite countertops — you might also have a conversation about shale.

That’s because the region surrounding Fort Worth overlays a massive shale formation (known as Barnett Shale) that holds an enormous amount of high-BTU natural gas that mining companies are eager to get a hold of and new gas service entrant Quicksilver Gas Services (NYSE:KGS) is eager to process.

To mine Barnett Shale, mining companies have been paying huge premiums to landowners to lease mineral rights (as high as $23,000 per acre). Expensive, but worth it — as long as gas prices remain near their present all-time highs, that is. 

Mining activity in the Barnett play has grown exponentially to over 8,000 producing wells today from just one in 1981. That explosion has been primarily driven by the gargantuan amounts of gas waiting to be withdrawn. Current estimates indicate upwards of 30 trillion cubic feet of gas in the ground, making it perhaps the second-largest onshore gas field in the United States. But no one knows for sure; it seems the more they drill, the more they find.

However, what’s really turned up the competitive heat for producers was . . .