Tag - Am

The broad markets were a mixed bag today with the Dow closing down to 8,299 while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 Index closed up at 1,792 and 901, respectively.

The Russell 2000, a composite of the largest 2,000 small-cap stocks, closed up almost 1% to 494.58.

Leading small-cap gainers today was American Greetings (NYSE:AM) up 52%. Other gainers in the small-cap space include Stoneridge (NYSE:SRI) up 28%; Atlas Pipeline (NYSE:AHD) up 20%; and Orckit Communications (Nasdaq:ORCT) up 25%.

Small-cap decliners for today include Allied Healthcare Products (Nasdaq:AHPI) down 13% on announcing posting a Q3 loss of over $450,000 versus a profit of $100,000 in the year-ago period, despite cost reduction measures.

Other small-cap decliners include Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) down 11%; grocer and food retailer Supervalu (NYSE:SVU) down 12%; and one of Monday's favored stocks, MTR Gaming Group (Nasdaq:MNTG), was down 12%.

*****The FOMC announced no change to the overnight lending rate later today.

In other words, there's no way this Fed can say anything about supporting a strong U.S. dollar with anything approaching credibility.

Oil, steel, gold and other commodities all rallied as the dollar weakened against the euro and the yen. When the dollar falls in value, you need more of them to purchase things. 

*****Extra dollars also come in handy when they are your protection for loans that you've made that might not get paid back. That's the case for Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), which is about to exchange 200 or so million shares of new stock for preferred shares. This move will effectively take a few billion dollars from shareholders and put it in the banks' coffers.

*****Monday, the World Bank lowered its 2009 growth forecasts for the global economy to 2.9%. This morning, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said it was leaving its 2009 forecast of a 4.1% contraction in place.

But the OECD did raise its forecast for 2010 growth to 0.7%. The OECD had been expecting a further 0.1% contraction next year.

These numbers make the OECD appear more bearish than the World Bank. However, it should be noted that the OECD represents just 30 countries. And it doesn't include the two economies that will likely post the best growth - India and China.

This is why we have been aggressively picking up Chinese stocks at SmallCapInvestor PRO. We're now holding 4 small Chinese stocks that we expect to do very well in the coming months for investors.

*****One of the stocks we recently recommended is a Chinese organic fertilizer company. China has 22% of the world's population, but only 7% of the world's arable land. And over-reliance on nitrogen-based fertilizers has leached the soil of nutrients and led to awful water pollution. 

Organic fertilizers represent a fundamentally different approach to feeding plants. Nitrogen-based fertilizer is dumped on fields and the plants' roots absorb the nutrients.
The nitrogen also runs off during rains and ends up in waterways and bodies of water causing algae blooms and dead zones. Organic fertilizers, on the other hand, make the soil itself healthier and able to provide the nutrients the plants need without the harmful run-off.

So not only can you re-invigorate your soil and your plants, you virtually eliminate run-off pollution and waste. 

The market potential for this organic fertilizer company is awesome. That's why it has projected 35% growth rate for the next 5 years. But with a forward P/E of 8.5, it's unlikely to remain a $7 stock for long. If you're interested, you can find out about this dynamic company HERE.

*****We'll be discussing our bullish outlook for commodity stocks in tonight's Internet Video Conference. It's titled Inflation Busters: Discover the Stocks to Grow and Protect Your Wealth and will air tonight, Wednesday, June 24 at 6:00 P.M. It's free to attend, there's still room and you can sign up HERE.

Midsouth Bancorp Inc (Nasdaq:MSL), M & F Worldwide Corp (Nasdaq:MFW) and Bank of Marin Bancorp (Nasdaq:BMRC) are among the new 52-week lows in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: American Greetings Corp (Nasdaq:AM), Central Pacific Financial Corp (Nasdaq:CPF), Webster Financial Corp (Nasdaq:WBS), Peoples Financial Corp (Miss) (Nasdaq:PFBX), Abington Bancorp Inc (Nasdaq:ABBC) and Renasant Corp (Nasdaq:RNST).