Tag - Bjgp

Small-cap stocks hovered near steady levels in choppy morning action, with support from last week’s impressive rally countered by profit-taking and unease toward the crude oil market. At 10:02 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was up 1.43, or 0.20% at 735.73.

Crude oil prices backed off the overnight highs into the stock market open, but remain in positive territory as traders were concerned that the military conflict between Russia and Georgia could disrupt oil transport through the Caspian region. Still, a mild upside push in crude oil this morning hardly takes the shine off last week’s collapse in energy prices, which highlighted a welcome pullback on the commodity inflation front.

A big part of last week’s bullish story revolved around a stunning appreciation in the U.S. dollar, which exploded against both the euro and the yen, reaching multi-month highs against worldwide currency products in the process. This morning, the greenback was tame, basically flat vs. the euro, and down about 0.3% against the yen.

Without any major economic data on the docket today, stock market investors should be free to focus on company news, macro trends and gyrations in commodities.

The Pantry, Inc. (Nasdaq:PTRY), Tween Brands Inc. (NYSE:TWB) and Preferred Bank (Nasdaq:PFBC) are among the biggest percentage losers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Encore Capital Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:ECPG) , BMP Sunstone Corp. (Nasdaq:BJGP)and Cascade Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:CASB) are also among the top small-cap percentage losers.

Here are Thursday's biggest percentage losers among small caps:

Beijing Med-Pharm Corp. (Nasdaq: BJGP), Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (Nasdaq: LEND) and Qiao Xing Universal Telephone, Inc. (Nasdaq: XING) are among the most actively traded companies in Monday pre-market trading among those with market capitalizations under $500 million: