Tag - Bqi

As of press time, 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time, stocks have jumped on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that he believes that the U.S. economy is on the verge of recovery.

Currently in Jackson, Wyoming for the annual Federal Reserve conference, Chairman Bernanke stated, "the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good", however warning that lending-a key driver of U.S. economic activity for businesses and consumers alike-has not yet returned to normal.

Indeed, looking to the future Mr. Bernanke said, "Looking forward, we must urgently address structural weaknesses in the financial system, in particular in the regulatory framework, to ensure that the enormous costs of the past two years will not be borne again."

The Dow as trading at 9,479, up 129 points; the Nasdaq was at 2,011, up 22 points; and the S&P 500 was up 15 points, trading at 1,022.

The Russell 2000, a composite of leading small-cap stocks like 3Com (Nasdaq:COMS), Oilsands Quest (Amex:BQI), Palm (Nasdaq:PALM), and Scholastic (Nasdaq:SCHL), was 12 points to 580.

Advances were leading declines by a margin of 4 to 1 on the NYSE and 7 to 3 on both the Nasdaq and Amex exchanges.

Leading price movers in the small-cap space include Sinclair Broadcast Group (Nasdaq:SBGI), up 42%; Wireless Ronin Technologies (Nasdaq:RNIN), up 40%; and Rentech (Amex:RTK), up 21%.

*****We all know that it's news that moves the stock market. But it's also true that not all news is created equal...

Stocks are trying to gain footing this afternoon after a larger-than-expected drop in home sales doused investor hopes that the economy was beginning to recover.

At 2:11 pm ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) is down 1.77% at 462.37, while the Dow is down 0.10% at 7,878.76 and the S&P 500 is down 0.06% at 843.04.

Stronger-than-expected earnings from benchmark Apple (Nasdaq:APPL) were unable to outshine the mood set by poor housing data released today. The National Association of Realtors reported this morning that sales of existing homes dropped 3% to an annual rate of 4.57 million last month.

Despite the bad news, certain small caps are still flying high today. Carrols Restaurant Group (Nasdaq:TAST) is up a whopping 35% after the company beat estimates, while another restaurant small-cap, Famous Dave’s of America, Inc. (Nasdaq:DAVE), is up 30% after seeing a Q1 profit jump.

*****As you know, we are watching oil prices as a measure of economic health. Today, it’s reported that March existing home sales fell by a bigger than expected 3%. And new claims for unemployment benefits rose a bit more than expected.

Consequently, oil prices remain below $50 a barrel.

Conoco-Phillips (NYSE:COP) reported an 80% drop in year-over-year profits for the first quarter. The stock is up because the company still managed to beat earnings expectations.

One interesting note from COP: it’s capital expenditure budget has been cut 37%. That means the company is investing less to bring more supply on line. In the current environment, investing in oil supply is not as rewarding as it was a year ago when oil was trading at north of $100 a barrel. But with global CAPEX spending by oil companies down approximately 17% this year, this is an industry-wide trend that has dire consequences going forward.

*****The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that as much as 2 million barrels a day of expected new oil supply production isn’t being completed due . . .

Small caps were unable to hold their own today in the wake of bad housing data, the unveiling of a $75 billion mortgage relief plan and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s sharp growth-view cut for 2009.Some of today’s small-cap gainers were Volcano Corporation (Nasdaq:VOLC), NewStar Financial (Nasdaq:NEWS) and LoJack Corporation (Nasdaq:LOJN).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

•General Motors and Chrysler submitted their proposal late Tuesday to the U.S. Treasury, asking for a combined $22 billion more in emergency loans to keep the automakers from going bankrupt.  
• Before the bell, the Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes and apartments fell to a record low annual rate of 466,000 in January. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• Medical equipment manufacturer Volcano Corporation is up 12% after turning to a profit in Q4 and guiding above estimates. See (Nasdaq:VOLC).
• NewStar Financial is over 10% higher after reporting a rise in Q4 profits See (Nasdaq:NEWS).  
• LoJack Corporation, which was up 14% after the security system company released a 2009 forecast that topped analysts’ estimates. See (Nasdaq:LOJN).  
• Eagle Bulk Shipping is up 6% in pre-market, after hitting a two-month low on Tueday. See (Nasdaq:EGLE).

Small Cap Losers:

• Fitch downgrades CapitalSource to 'BB+'; shares topple 27%. See (NYSE:CSE).
• Oilsands Quest Inc. extends its steep slide, down 10% as many energy companies are limping through trading Wednesday. See (NYSE:BQI).  
• Cross Timbers Royalty Trust declares February cash distribution; shares drop over 18%. See (NYSE:CRT).  

Small caps dove 5.43% on Wednesday, marking the second-lowest close in five years (both of those closes have taken place within the last three weeks). Today’s small-cap gainers are Carter’s Inc. (NYSE:CRI), Vascular (Nasdaq:VASC) and BGH GP Holdings (NYSE:BGH).

Other Market Watch highlights today include:

• The Russell is now down 33.4% for 2008, while the Dow is off 36.36% and the S&P 500 is down 38%.
• Concerns that consumer spending and a global growth stall will pinch corporate profits even more in the months to come clearly had a negative impact on stocks.
• Commodity firms dominated the list of worst performing sectors today, paced by metal and mining shares, coal stocks, oil and gas drillers, aluminum and gold. 
• The headline news on the commodity front was clearly crude oil, which collapsed 7.5%, or more than $5 a barrel and is now back below $67 — down some 54% from the summer peak.
• Other sectors taking a body blow today included motorcycle manufacturers, restaurants, tobacco companies and internet retail stocks.
• The slide in commodities was reflected by a huge decline in the Commodity Research Bureau Index, which tumbled 4.5% to the lowest point since August 2004.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Children's apparel market Carter's Inc. raised to "buy" from "hold;" reports solid Q3 results. Shares closed up over 13%. See (NYSE:CRI).
• Vascular jumped 15% after Q3 EPS beat the Street by 57%, as the . . .

Shares of Oil Sands Quest (Amex:BQI) are getting a boost in pre-market trading after CNBC’s Jim Cramer recommended the oil sands deposits exploration and development company as a real estate play on the unrelenting demand for more oil.

Cramer said the company could be sitting on up to 10 billion barrels of bitumen; and that while bitumen is harder to refine than light sweet crude, with oil well over $40 a barrel, the economics of oil sands makes sense now. The TV stock pundit also said that even if the company does not find oil, it could still be a real estate play.

Shares popped up 9%, or $0.56, to $6.80 in pre-market trading. For detailed price information and recent news stories about Oil Sands Quest, click BQI.

For all the chatter surrounding wind, solar, biomass and other “green” energy sources, the world still runs on old-fashioned fossil fuel — and will to an even greater degree into the distant future. The U.S. Energy Information Administration presages daily world petroleum consumption will grow to 97 million barrels in 2015 to 118 million barrels in 2030, from 83 million barrels today.

Growing demand for petroleum and its distillates is as old as the industry itself. In recent years, the demand has quickened a step or two; hence, the five-fold increase in per-barrel prices over the past decade.

No one likes to pay higher prices, but higher prices spur entrepreneurs to bring new oil supplies to market. One notable entrepreneur actively seeking new supplies is Oilsands Quest Inc. (AMEX: BQI), a Calgary-based energy exploration and development company whose business is extracting oil from oil sands.

And there's potentially a lot of oil for Oilsands to extract. Canada's oil sand reserves lie under an expanse of real estate larger than Florida, putting it on par with Saudi Arabia's reserves. But unlike the Saudi's reserves, which flow relatively freely, Canada's oil from sand often requires high-pressure steam — produced by burning vast amounts of natural gas — that's injected into the ground to separate the viscous bitumen from the sand to which it adheres.

Oil at $30 a barrel provides little incentive to pressure-wash sand for oil. Oil at $100 a barrel is another matter. Today's prices have inspired oil sands projects valued at $100 billion, further cementing Canada's position as the number one crude-oil supplier to the United States.

Oilsands is working to assure that the United States's petroleum thirst remains well slaked. The company owns a 100% interest in the Saskatchewan Oil Shale exploration, as well as lesser projects in the Alberta oil sands, giving it the largest contiguous lease on oil sands in Canada, if not the world. The company has forged ahead with an ambitious winter drilling program to prove reserves ahead of a 10,000-barrel-per-day pilot project scheduled to start up in 2009, with a subsequent target of 100,000 barrels per day. The company has four rigs turning in Alberta and Saskatchewan to delineate an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of contingent reserves.

The following were the most actively traded companies in Monday's trading among those with market capitalizations under $500 million:

The following are the most actively traded companies at 1:33 ET among those with market capitalizations under $500 million: