Tag - Blt

Stocks extended losses from Monday, unable to push higher after weak housing data was released and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made somber statements to Congress about the economic situation. Some of today’s small-cap gainers were ABM Industries (NYSE:ABM), Talbots (NYSE:TLB) and Thor Industries (NYSE:THO).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed down 6.79, or 1.85%, to 361.01. The Dow closed down 0.55% to 6,726.02 and the S&P 500 closed down 0.64% to 696.33.  The S&P 500 closed below 700 for the first time since 1996.
• For the year, the Russell is now down 27.72%, the Dow is down 23.36% and the S&P 500 is down 22.91%.
• Global stock markets fell further Tuesday, after news broke Monday that small-cap insurer AIG reported the biggest quarterly loss in corporate history, and HSBC Holdings slashed its dividend, revealed it needed to raise $18B from shareholders.
• Citigroup said today that in order to help the unemployed, it would start a new program to lower some mortgage payments to an average $500 for three months.
• Small-cap GM says February U.S. sales will be "exceptionally weak."
• Oil prices rose during Tuesday's trading, settling up $1.50 to end the day at $41.65. 
• This morning, Bernanke reiterated to Congress that any semblance of economic recovery hinges on the U.S. government’s ability to stabilize ailing financial markets.
• New data today revealed that the number of homebuyers purchasing existing homes fell 7.7% to a new low of 80.4 in January. Economists were predicting a January reading of 85.1.

Small Cap Gainers:

• ABM Industries announced first-quarter fiscal 2009 financial results; shares climbed 24%. See (NYSE:ABM).
• Talbots closed a $200M credit line, suspended its dividend and froze . . .

Small-cap stocks extended morning losses into the midday time frame, as another batch of dour economic numbers quickly refocused attention from the U.S. elections back onto the recession. At 12:30 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 16.27, or 2.98%, at 529.68.

Drug, technology and financial shares paced today’s decline, fueled by worries that a recession in the U.S. and a slowdown around the globe would dampen corporate profitability and deepen jobs losses. The jobs issue is now on the front burner ahead of Friday’s big employment report, which is expected to show a nasty decline of 180,000 non-farm payrolls and an uptick on the unemployment rate to 6.3%.

Earlier today, the ADP Employment Survey came in at minus 157,000, which was worse than the forecast for a decline of 100,000 – and which didn’t include the Boeing strike numbers. The ADP report hasn’t had a very strong correlation with the Labor Department’s report due Friday morning, but the ADP figures did hint that the number could be even worse than feared.

Also on the data front, the ISM Non-Manufacturing Survey came in at 44.4, which was the lowest figure for services activity in the 10-year history of the report and way below the 50.0 line which represents contraction.

Looking at broad market sector activity, forest products, tire and rubber stocks, health care facilities, coal, internet retail and broadcast TV companies were the worst performers. The best performers were homebuilders, health care services, managed health care and office supplies. Even though the S&P homebuilder sector . . .