Tag - UTI

United Community Bancorp (Nasdaq:UCBA), Domtar Corp. (Nasdaq:UFS) and BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq:BBX) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Oncothyreon Inc. (Nasdaq:ONTY), ENPRO Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:NPO), Unitrin Inc. (Nasdaq:UTR), Cray Inc. (Nasdaq:CRAY), Universal Technical Institute Inc. (Nasdaq:UTI) and Talbots Inc. (Nasdaq:TLB).

Gladstone Capital Corp. (Nasdaq:GLAD), Universal Technical Institute Inc. (Nasdaq:UTI) and Mueller Water Products Inc. (Nasdaq:MWA) are among the biggest percentage losers in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Taylor Capital Group Inc. (Nasdaq:TAYC), Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), Dolan Media Co. (Nasdaq:DM), Bristow Group Inc. (Nasdaq:BRS), Union Bankshares Inc. (Nasdaq:UNB) and WMS Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:WMS).

Today marked the third time in four days that stock market investors chose to dismiss dreary economic data as a non-event, and this time around they did it on the biggest report of them all – the monthly Labor Department report on employment. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed up nearly 5%. Some of today's small-cap gainers included BankAtlantic Bancorp (NYSE:BBX), DineEquity (NYSE:DIN) and . . .

Small-cap stocks took flight Friday, setting aside a historically bleak employment report amid hope that all those gloomy numbers are already priced into the market. If true, then bargain-hunters are snatching up equities relatively close to the lows, getting ahead of the curve on an impending turnaround in the global economic scene. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed up 21.56, or 4.91%, at 461.09, reversing course on a morning rout that saw small caps down 3.5% at the worst point of the day. For the year, the Russell is now down 40%, while the Dow is off 35% and the S&P 500 is down 40%.

This marked the third time in four days that stock market investors chose to dismiss dreary economic data as a non-event, and this time around they did it on the biggest report of them all – the monthly Labor Department report on employment. Looking at the guts of the jobs report, it’s not that easy to dive into stocks with abandon. Here are some ready-made frightening headlines from the report:

* Largest one-month drop in payrolls since December 1974
* Highest unemployment rate in 13 years
* Fifth largest monthly decline in jobs in history

What’s more, it is widely expected that the jobs picture will get worse – not better – over the next couple of months. So, why did the stock market treat all this bad news as a buying opportunity? Because there is a wide-spread belief that the market has already priced in all of these dreadful economic reports and that upside potential . . .