Tag - FSIN

Small caps are lower today following a drop in U.S. exports in March and multiple stock offerings across the board that doused enthusiasm.

At 2:04 pm ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) is down 2.46%, while the Dow is down 0.26% and the S&P 500 has fallen 0.97%.

New data out today showed that the U.S. trade gap widened in March for the first time in eight months and exports fell 2.4%, weighing on the market.

Small caps bucking the trend today include STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEC), up 31% after reporting operating results, while small-cap Chinese seller of mobile phone ringtones and games Hurray! Holding Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq:HRAY) is up 28% on speculation that Shanda Interactive, China’s biggest online games provider, may acquire the company.

*****Oil is above $60 a barrel. Investors are buying on the expectation that the end of the recession is in sight. And hopefully, Daily Profit readers are benefiting via my recommendation of oil services company Graham Corp. (AMEX:GHM). Graham is breaking above $15 a share today. It’s now up 65% for those who have been following me for a while.

Of course, oil stocks are up on expectations. A dose of reality comes from the housing market today. It’s reported that home prices fell in 134 of the 152 metropolitan areas the National Association of Realtors tracks during the 1st quarter.

Sounds bad, but there is a silver lining. The number of homes sold more than doubled in Nevada, rose 81% in California and 50% in Arizona. These states were among the hottest real estate markets during the housing bubble, and they suffered mightily when the bubble popped. That homes are selling is far more important than the price they are selling for. Housing inventory must get turned over for the economy to improve.

*****Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman isn’t convinced the recession is nearing an end. He doesn’t believe economic fundamentals support the recent rally and warns that recent economic data could breed “a dangerous complacency.”

The fear, of course, is that we will have the proverbial “double dip” of recession once government stimulus money (and patience) runs out. Like in the housing market, first time buyers are assisted by an $8,000 credit. That will boost

Small caps took a breather after financial stocks pulled back today following a rally last week.

At closing, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 1.93%, while the Dow was down 1.82% and the S&P 500 fell 2.15%.

Concerns about more shares issued to the market by three banks that passed the government’s “stress tests” weighed on financial stocks today. Tech saw a rise today, though, after large-cap benchmark Microsoft Corp. divulged plans to raise money through a debt offering for the first time, and Dish Network posted better-than-expected quarterly profits.

Although today was a “down” day, there were still small caps that made solid gains. Communications services provider D&E Communications (Nasdaq:DECC) climbed a healthy 52% today after news broke that the small cap would be acquired by Windstream for $330 million. Anadys Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ANDS) was also up 33% today after an analyst upgrade, while The South Financial Group (Nasdaq:TSFG) gained 32% following its operating results release late last week.

*****The “Stress Test rally” didn’t last long. Bank stocks had a good day Friday. In fact, they had a good week. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), for instance, went from $8.70 to $14.17, a +62.8% gain. With that type of one-week gain, it’s not too surprising that banks backed off today as investors look to take profits.

There’s no doubt that the major indices are extended. Some kind of pullback is on order. But Jason Cimpl, technical analyst at TradeMaster, is in “buy the dips” mode.

Even though prices might be extended, we are still looking at an economy and a stock market that is in recovery. And that means current levels, like 8,400 on the Dow or 1,700 on the Nasdaq, have room for upside.

I’ll keep you posted on what Jason’s looking at and where he thinks . . .

Changyou.com Ltd (Nasdaq:CYOU), Century Aluminum Co (Nasdaq:CENX) and Canadian Solar Inc (Nasdaq:CSIQ) are among the most actively traded companies in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc (Nasdaq:EGLE), UAL Corp (Nasdaq:UAUA), Mentor Graphics Corp (Nasdaq:MENT), Fushi Copperweld Inc (Nasdaq:FSIN), James River Coal Co (Nasdaq:JRCC) and Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp (Nasdaq:BGFV).

 

Tree.com Inc. (Nasdaq:TREE), GFI Group Inc. (Nasdaq:GFIG) and Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. (Nasdaq:BGFV) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Par Technology Corp. (Nasdaq:PTC), James River Coal Co. (Nasdaq:JRCC), NetScout Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:NTCT), Chiquita Brands International Inc. (Nasdaq:CQB), Patriot Coal Corp. (Nasdaq:PCX) and Fushi Copperweld Inc. (Nasdaq:FSIN).

Palm Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM), DryShips Inc. (Nasdaq:DRYS) and Iconix Brand Group Inc. (Nasdaq:ICON) are among the most actively traded companies in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Zhongpin Inc (Nasdaq:HOGS), Fushi Copperweld Inc. (Nasdaq:FSIN), Cepheid (Nasdaq:CPHD), Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq:EGLE), Synaptics Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNA) and Solarfun Power Holdings Co Ltd. (Nasdaq:SOLF).

China East Air (Nasdaq:CEA), Fushi Copperweld Inc. (Nasdaq:FSIN) and Wavecom (Nasdaq:WVCM) are among the new 52-week lows in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.           
         
Here are the new 52-week lows among small caps:   

Small caps opened lower and continue to bleed midday as concerns about financials and the credit crisis resurfaced to the top of the docket for investors. 

At 1:00 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) had slipped 4.68, or 0.68%, to 736.38, while the Dow skidded 61.41, or 0.52%, to 11,721.21.

After what seemed to be the beginnings of a strong rally, the small-cap index lost its steam as a myriad of lackluster news spewed out of Wall Street’s major investment houses reminding investors of the difficulties that continue to enrapture financials.

JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) said in a regulatory filing Monday that trading conditions have “substantially deteriorated” and that it anticipates the global economy will remain anemic, that capital markets will remain under pressure and that it expects housing prices to continue to crumble. The bank said it squandered $1.5 billion after hedges of its mortgage-backed securities and loans. Shares skidded 7% midday.

UBS (NYSE:UBS) reported today that it took a $5.1 billion write-down and booked a fourth consecutive loss in the second quarter of $331 million, as the bank continues to grapple with decayed subprime mortgage securities. The bank also said it will split up its investment banking and wealth management divisions.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is off 4.5% midday after Deutsche Bank lowered its rating on the investment bank to “hold” from “buy” and reduced its target price. Oppenheimer’s Meredith Whitney also slashed her earnings outlook for this year and next.

Shares of Fushi Copperweld, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSIN) are getting clobbered after the China-based manufacturer of bimetallic wire used in a variety of telecommunication, utility, automotive applications said that it is lowering its fiscal 2008 earnings on account of the anemic housing market in the U.S., which feeds telecom demand, and because of a decline in telecom capital spending in China due to industry restructuring.

Shares flopped lost 21%, or $3.23, to $11.86 at 10:47 a.m. For detailed price information and news stories on Fushi Copperweld, click FSIN.   

Small-cap stocks edged lower shortly after the opening, pulled down by weakness in the financial arena, a bounce in crude oil prices and long profit-taking following two sessions of huge gains. At 10:00 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 4.22, or 0.56%, at 746.84. The Dow was off 0.58%, while the S&P 500 was down 0.51%.

Financial stocks were back in the spotlight this morning, pulled down by a batch of fresh bearish news overnight and a spate of analyst downgrades in various big names. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Wachovia Corp. (NYSE:WB) were pressured by the auction-rate security fiasco, as WB settled a probe on the issue and lowered Q2 numbers, while MS offered to reimburse investors. It’s a painful hit to the bottom line that the number one bank Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) already has faced. In addition, Oppenheimer analysts lowered the outlook for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS). Shortly after the open, MS was down 3.0%, WB off 4.5%, C down 1.2% and GS down 3.3%. The Financial Select SPDR was down 1.9%.

The market also frowned upon a sudden recovery bounce in crude oil prices, which saw the market on black gold move from three-month lows near $113 overnight back toward the $115 zone into the stock market opening. The rise in crude was tied to news that some production and transport in the Georgia region was going to be offline, even though Russian officials have ordered an end to the military conflict.

Elsewhere on the commodity inflation front, corn futures were called lower following USDA’s August production report, which forecast a larger crop than expected. However, softs markets were climbing this morning and the iPath GSCI Total Return commodities index was up about 0.3% in early trading. After huge declines in recent days, a consolidation move or bounce in commodities certainly wouldn’t . . .

Marketocracy is a unique website developed by Ken Kam, former portfolio manager and co-founder of Firsthand Funds, that allows individual investors to manage "virtual" $1 million portfolios. Designed with the same restrictions as a “real” mutual fund, the system allows investors to test their skills against other individual investors and compare their performance against their peers and the professional money management world.

Today, Marketocracy has over 55,000 people managing 65,000 model portfolios.

“We have followed over 10,000 stock positions at any one time and more than four million trades,” Kam says. By comparing the long- and short-term performance of each stock picker and their buys and sells, Kam attempts to identify what he believes are “truly the best investors.”

This lengthy introduction to his strategy is important, as it is this analysis of all the trades within these model portfolios that forms the basis for Kam’s specific stock selections. One example is his Stock Alerts newsletter. He begins by analyzing each of the stock purchases made by those individuals in his system whose performance ranking is in the top 25% of all monitored portfolios.

He then compares these buys — on a stock-by-stock basis — with the buys and sells made by the 75% of investors whose portfolios have underperformed. The third step is to find those stocks that are being bought by the “best” while simultaneously being sold by the “rest.”

From the stocks that pass this step, Kam selects his “buy” recommendations, such as these three small-cap stocks, based on this “best versus the rest” approach.

China Techfaith Wireless Comm. Tech. Ltd. (Nasdaq: CNTF), Fushi International Inc. (Nasdaq: FSIN) and North American Galvanizing & Coatings (Nasdaq: NGA) are among the most actively traded companies in Tuesday pre-market trading among those with market capitalizations under $750 million:

With a fifth of the world's population and a supercharged economy on pace to surpass Germany and become the world's third largest by the end of 2007, China is booming. Beijing reported that China's $2.8 trillion economy grew just shy of 12% in the second quarter, its fastest clip in 12 years. Investment in public works projects, which account for about 9% of the GDP, shot up an astounding 25.9% in the first half of 2007.

In the 1990s, the country of 1.3 billion began a monumental undertaking: building the tens of thousands of miles of modern roads and highways that today crisscross the nation (rivaling the best in the United States and Europe). Even so, after decades of under-investment, China is still playing catch-up to bring its largely antiquated infrastructure up to snuff. After all, building a global economy requires reliable communications networks, efficient transportation systems, dependable energy sources and clean water.
 
Today, an unprecedented infrastructure build-out is consuming half of the world's cement, 40% of its steel and 20% of its copper. (Approximately 45% of China's copper is used for carrying electrical current and generating power, and the demand for copper is increasing 20% annually.)

Fushi International, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSIN) is China's largest manufacturer of bimetallic wire. Its principal products are copper-clad aluminum (CCA) wires, which are primarily used for telephone lines, cable TV (CATV) systems, network signal transmission cable, electric railway conductor lines, patch cords for electronic components and other applications. Copper clad aluminum is composite wire used as a substitute for pure copper wire. Consisting of a solid aluminum core metallurgically bonded to a copper sleeve, the product takes advantage of the high conductivity of copper and aluminum's lower cost and lighter weight.

Fushi International, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSIN) will buy U.S. rival Copperweld Bimetallics, LLC for $22.5 million in cash, the Chinese maker of bimetallic wire reported after the close on Tuesday.

The all-cash transaction, which includes the assumption of debt, is scheduled to close at the beginning of the fourth-quarter of 2007. The exact purchase price could change based on Fayetteville, Tenn.-based Copperweld’s net working capital when the deal is inked.

“We look forward to quickly completing this transaction and welcoming Copperweld to Fushi’s expanding business,” said Li Fu, Fushi’s chairman and CEO, in a press release. “This transaction makes Fushi a truly global operation and establishes our business as the leading supplier of bimetallic products worldwide.”

Copperweld has a strong presence in the North American and European markets, through a production facility in Tennessee and another in England. The company’s executive management team will join Fushi when the acquisition is complete.

Strong and conductive, bimetallic wires are typically used in cable television, telecommunications, utility, electronics, and other industrial and transit applications.

At 3:48 p.m. ET, Fushi (FSIN) shares were up $1.81, or 16%, to $13.21. That’s close to the 52-week high of $14.00, touched on June 20.

Corgi International Ltd. (Nasdaq: CRGI), Verticalnet, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERT) and China BAK Battery Inc. (Nasdaq: CBAK) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers:

Fushi International Inc. (Nasdaq: FSIN) and China Natural Gas Inc. (OTC: CHNG) are two Rising Star Stocks discussed in an exclusive online video interview with Rising Star Stocks lead analyst and SmallCapInvestor.com contributor Benson George.
 
In an exclusive interview with STRAIGHT TALK TV host Bram Solloway, George reveals why both of these companies represent strong potential in today's turbulent market. Both companies are China-based firms keyed into the infrastructure build-out of the Chinese domestic economy.