Tag - LEE

Stocks rallied today suggesting that investors sloughed off fears of a correction or at least pushed out the day of reckoning. The Dow closed up 83.51 to 9,154.23 after a major drop down during the last hour of trading. The Nasdaq closed up 16.54 to end the day at 1,984.30 and the S&P 500 closed up 11.60 to finish at 986.75 after and early session high of 996.68 had traders believing that 1,000 might be broken.

The Russell 2000 closed at 557.75, up 9.37.

Leading price gainers for small-cap today was Georgia Gulf Corporation (NYSE:GGC) up 119% after announcing it had cut its debt load by half. Other small-cap gainers include Valassis Communications (NYSE:VCI) up 30%; Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) up 27%; and American Superconductor Corporation (Nasdaq:AMSC) up 23%.

Decliners in the small-cap space were lead by Inovio Biomedical Corporation (AMEX:INO) down 53% after announcing today that it had received commitments from institutional investors to purchase $30 million in securities. Other small-cap decliners include Lee Enterprises (NYSE:LEE) down 30%; Alliance Healthcare (NYSE:AIQ) down 30%; and icad (Nasdaq:ICAD) down 20%.

******Stocks have traded in a pretty tight range over the last several sessions. There's been an appearance of weakness, and some comments from talking heads that a correction is coming, or may have started. It's sure not looking that way today.

Stocks are big in the early going. The sell-off in China I mentioned the other day has reversed. All the talk of an imminent overheating of China's economy now sounds like a deliberate attempt to work stocks lower so dips could be bought.

There should be no doubt that games are being played right now. Shenanigans, as I like to call them. But it's also true that economic recovery is an unknown entity: we don't know what's going to happen, how robust the recovery is and what the upside may be. That's why the shenanigans work.

Just this morning, new jobless claims came in higher than expected. That's bad news. But stocks are up big. Many of the ongoing conditions of recession are being discounted because it's widely believed that the economy has bottomed. Some believe the recovery that's going on right now will show up as a surprise number for the third quarter GDP.

*****So that suggests that today's poor unemployment number will soon be a stabilizing, or even improving number. Yesterday's bad durable goods number will be the bottom of the cycle…

Is the market being set-up for a massive disappointment? You bet it is. Will that disappointment materialize? I don't know.

That leaves me, and other investors, in a difficult spot. So, I'm going to continue to do what I've been doing - buy quality stocks in the sectors that make sense, watch them like a hawk and take profits. That approach has worked extremely well in all of my advisory letters.

*****I haven't mentioned my Recovery Portfolio lately. I've added a couple stocks over the last few weeks and just closed a covered call trade on Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK). We made 21% and 25% in four months on a very low risk investment. I'm lining up my next covered call trade, to learn more about Recovery Portfolio, click HERE.

*****SCI Daily readers are the best. Your response to the T-shirt contest I announced yesterday to get the word out on my first book, The Small Cap Investor: Secrets to Winning Big with Small Cap Stocks, was outstanding. And I didn't even give you all the details!

First of all, I neglected to include the link to the SmallCapInvestor Facebook page. Click this link to check it out.

I also didn't mention that everyone who submits a T-shirt slogan will get a 30-day, 100% complimentary trial to my SmallCapInvestor PRO advisory service. Or that the winner gets a one-year subscription to ALL of my advisory and trading services ($2,680 value), plus a signed copy of the book and three t-shirts.

And still, you stepped up to help. Thanks again for your overwhelming support.

I will be taking submissions for the T-shirt slogan until August 9, 2009. Submissions can be made at Facebook or via email (tshirt@smallcapinvestor.com). All email submissions will be posted on Facebook and that's where the voting will take place.

*****It's pretty clear now that the trends we've seen emerging from the financial crisis and recovery will be with us for a long time. I'm talking about high unemployment, higher taxes, a weak dollar, restrictive regulations, and potential inflation, just to name a few.

Clearly, these conditions will have a profound effect on your investments in the months and years ahead.

And because many of these conditions are a direct result of government bailouts, I'm calling the condition Managed America.

We've just completed the update to the Predictions 2009 special report (I mentioned it last week, click here if you need a copy). The report does a cursory review of the past few months and the investing strategy that made big gains for Top Stock Insights subscribers.

More importantly however, the report reveals our investing strategies for the remainder of 2009 and beyond, and explores my concept of Managed America and how you can still make profitable investments. The U.S. economy has changed and investors need to understand the changes in order to make the best investments.

To complement the report, I'm hosting a web video conference on Monday, August 10th at 6:00 p.m. to go over the major themes of Managed America and how you'll make profits from this new economic reality.

The event is free, but you do need to register for it. Click here for the free registration page now to make sure you're on the list to attend.

Best Regards,

Ian Wyatt
Editor
SCI Daily

Small-cap stocks fell hard Tuesday, as the combination of credit worries, high inflation and a slumping housing market whipped up the perfect bearish storm. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed down 11.94, or 1.61%, at 730.03, while the Dow was off 1.14% and the S&P 500 was down 0.93%. For the year, the Russell is now down 4.69%, backing off quickly after flirting with a test of positive yearly territory late last week. The Dow is down 14.4% for 2008 and the S&P 500 is off 13.7%.

Financial shares remained at the center of the seller hurricane, extending the rout that started Monday as talk of more debt write-downs started making the rounds. The fresh target today was Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH), which crashed 13% after analysts predicted $4 billion more in bad mortgage debt was ready to rolled off the books this quarter. The shudder of renewed bad debt fear swept through financial stocks, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund tumbling 2.9% and the PHLX KBW Banking Index sinking 3.4% Major U.S. banks like Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) were hit by the concerns, slipping 2.5% and 4.1%, respectively.

And while the credit crisis was back in play again today, the market also had to come to grips with yet another bad inflation economic report. Last week saw investors essentially shrug off scary inflation numbers on the Consumer Price Index release, dismissing the data as less disturbing because it didn’t reflect the recent collapse in crude oil prices. Then today’s Producer Price Index (PPI) report not only showed headline inflation at 27 year highs, but also reflected “core” inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, at 17-year highs. The realization that the inflation story isn’t just about $4-a-gallon gasoline pump prices and higher grocery bills is a sobering thought for the market.

Just to finish off the bearish news, July housing starts came in below the forecast, with the unit rate at the lowest point since 1991. So, PPI is at 27-year highs, core inflation is at 17-year highs and housing starts are at 17-year lows. Combined, it’s not a pretty picture, and it also handcuffs monetary policy makers who have to walk a tightrope between battling inflation versus coddling economic health.

Broad market sectors on the decline Tuesday included motorcycle manufacturers, real estate management firms, department stores, consumer finance, casinos, . . .

Omnicell, Inc. (Nasdaq:OMCL), Citizens Republic Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:CRBC) and AMCORE Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMFI) were among the new 52-week lows established during Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations or values under $750 million.

Insight Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:NSIT), Ambassadors International, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMIE) and Lee Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:LEE) were also among the 52-week small-cap lows.

Here are today's 52-week small-cap lows:

Cheniere Energy, Inc. (AMEX:LNG), Silver State Bancorp (Nasdaq:SSBX) and Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq:ALDN) were among the new 52-week lows established during Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations or values under $750 million.

Lee Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:LEE), FedFirst Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:FFCO) and LNB Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:LNBB) were also among the 52-week small-cap lows.

Here are today's 52-week small-cap lows:

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) opened with a steep decline on news of a profit decline at General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE).

At 10:04 a.m. ET, the small-cap index was down 10.56 points, or 1.49%, to 696.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 152.75 points, or 1.21%, to 12,429.23.

The bears are in control this morning on news before the opening that General Electric suffered a decline in first-quarter profit and lowered its full-year 2008 earnings guidance.

“Demand for our global infrastructure business remained strong, but our financial services businesses were challenged by a slowing U.S. economy and difficult capital markets,” chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt . . .

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) closed in negative territory as investors digested news of economic reports. The small-cap index fell 8.54 points, or 1.13%, to 745.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) added 12.76 points, or 0.10%, to 13,056.72.

Small-cap stocks opened the session in positive territory but lost steam during the second half of trading and fell into the red.

The bullish pre-market mood was due to a report by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP), which claimed that U.S. nonfarm private employment increased 40,000 in December. The provider of business outsourcing solutions attributed the rise to small- and medium-sized businesses, which added 75,000 jobs while larger companies cut 35,000.

The December figure was larger than forecasted but is almost three times below the average for three-month period from September through November.

A slowdown in employment growth is consistent with a slowdown in economic growth.

Breaking down the numbers, employment in the service-providing sector was up, while the goods-producing sector suffered its thirteenth consecutive monthly decline and manufacturing employment fell for the eighteenth consecutive month.

In other employment news, U.S. Labor Department reported that jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 29 fell 21,000 to 336,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 357,000.

However, many consider the government’s statistics to be imprecise due to the distorting effects of the Christmas holiday, which decreased the time laid-off workers have to file for benefits.

Restoration Hardware, Inc. (Nasdaq: RSTO), AeroCentury Corp. (AMEX: ACY) and Amcon Distributing Co. (AMEX: DIT) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers: