Tag - Gu

Small-cap stocks remained higher into the midday time frame, but the market did pull back well off the morning highs. A White House lifeline to automakers lifted market sentiment, and tech stocks were solid performers, helping to counter declines in retail and some commodity names, but the morning rise appeared to be on precarious footing heading into afternoon trading. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are MAP Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:MAPP), AbitibiBowater (NYSE:ABH) and China Eastern Airlines Corp.  (NYSE:CEA).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The poorest performers so far included forest products, steel companies, home improvement retailers, footwear manufacturers and dept stores 
• The market could be vulnerable to a “buy-the-rumor, sell-the-fact” response to the automaker bailout now that the package is a known event.
• Energy stocks are up about 1% even though crude oil prices are down about $0.70 a barrel and tumbled to fresh 4 ½-year lows earlier today.  
• The best performers are industrial REITs, automobile manufacturers, IT consulting firms, gas utilities companies, managed healthcare firms.  
• Small-cap stocks remained higher into the midday time frame, but the market did pull back well off the morning highs. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• Midas Inc. jumped 24% as the Canadian life sciences company appears to be breaking out to the upside after an extended bottoming process. See (NYSE:MDS).  
• Alamo Group Inc. jumped 22% as the snow removal and tractor equipment product maker has seen unusually wide price swings this week. See (NYSE:ALG).  
• Bottomline Technologies rises 18% after announcing a partnership with QAD earlier this week. See (Nasdaq:EPAY)


Small Cap Losers:

• W Holding Company down 28% on lower-than-average volume. See (NYSE:WHI).
• FirstFed Financial is down 15% on heavy short interest. See (NYSE:FED).  
• Gushan Environmental Energy down 12% as energy stocks are on the slide today. See (NYSE:GU).  
• Gabelli & Co. downgrades Tennant to "sell;" shares fall 10%. See (NYSE:TNC). 

LNB Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq:LNBB), Silicon Graphics Inc. (Nasdaq:SGIC) and Gushan Environmental Energy Ltd. (Nasdaq:GU) are among the biggest percentage losers in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Santander Bancorp (Nasdaq:SBP), CNA Surety Corp. (Nasdaq:SUR), Nara Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq:NARA), SureWest Communications (Nasdaq:SURW), RC2 Corp. (Nasdaq:RCRC) and Oneida Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:ONFC).

Here are the biggest percentage losers among small caps:

Biodel Inc. (Nasdaq:BIOD), Gateway Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:GBTS) and James River Coal Co. (Nasdaq:JRCC) are among the biggest percentage losers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: A Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq:APWR), National Coal Corp. (Nasdaq:NCOC), Double Take Software Inc. (Nasdaq:DBTK), City Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:CHCO), Gushan Environmental Energy Ltd. (Nasdaq:GU) and Spectranetics Corp. (Nasdaq:SPNC).

Here are the biggest percentage losers among small caps:

Gushan Environmental Energy Limited (NYSE:GU) is down more than 12% today after analysts at Merrill Lynch downgraded the biodiesel producer to “neutral” from “buy.” The China-based company produces biofuels using a variety of feedstocks. Extreme weather conditions in the U.S. Midwest have driven the price of many commodities, such as corn and soybeans, to record highs. Both crops often are used in the production of biofuels. Shares of Gushan Environmental Energy are at $10.76 at 12:17 ET, down about $1.46 from Wednesday’s close.

Acme Packet Inc. (Nasdaq:APKT), TranS1 Inc. (Nasdaq:TSON) and ARYx Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:ARYX) are among the biggest percentage losers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Pyramid Oil Company (AMEX:PDO), Gushan Environmental Energy Limited (NYSE:GU), Security Bank Corp. (Nasdaq:SBKC), ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Limited (Nasdaq:CXSP), Volterra Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq:VLTR) and Fuel Systems Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq:FSYS).

Here are the biggest percentage losers among small caps:

Like the United States, China is pushing the development of alternative energy sources to reduce the nation's dependence on imported crude. In the face of spiraling oil prices and a domestic diesel fuel shortage, the Chinese biodiesel industry is receiving a lot of attention.

While corn-based ethanol is the most popular biofuel in the United States, biodiesel holds the top spot in China. Biodiesel is a clean-burning ("carbon neutral") and biodegradable fuel produced from feedstocks like waste oil (old cooking oil from restaurants), vegetable oil offal and animal fat, typically blended with standard diesel fuel, then used in trucks, buses, ships and electrical generators. The byproducts of biodiesel production are used in the food, manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries.

Gushan Environmental Energy Limited (NYSE: GU), the People's Republic of China's largest biodiesel producer in terms of annual production capacity, is betting on the growing use of biodiesel and the push toward a more energy independent China. In addition to providing biodiesel to individual retail gas stations, petroleum wholesales and seagoing vessels, Gushan sells by-products from the production process (glycerine, stearic acid, erucic acid, erucic amide and plant asphalt). The company operates three production plants in the Sichuan, Fujian and Hebei provinces and plans to soon add four new facilities in Beijing, Shanghai, Hunan and Chongqing, to more than double its annual production capacity to 400,000 tons by the end of this year. 

Last month Gushan staged an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $173 million (18 million shares at $9.60), though the stock was priced well below the expected range of $11.50 to $13.50. Since then, shares weathered cooling U.S. capital markets and rose to $12.72 on Jan. 3, before slowly falling back to the $9 range. Gushan’s 52-week low is $7. The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund expansion efforts and to strengthen research and development.

Many of the illnesses that scourge our population are simply related to aging. We can survive so many of the things that killed our ancestors before they turned 40 that now, as we keep going decades longer, we suffer from metabolic breakdowns: diabetes, obesity, and ordinary old age. The easiest way to avoid these conditions is to die young, but that’s not really the best option. Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has no products on the market yet, but it has several in its R&D pipeline that could be interesting. Two compounds, Glinsuna and Metgluna, are both designed to treat Type 2 diabetes. Both are in Phase III clinical trials (to test safety and efficacy in clinical use), and the company hopes to have enough data to submit for approval in 2009. Other products, for diabetes, obesity, opioid-induced bowel dysfunction, and Huntington’s disease, are further behind in the process but could lead to a string of products into the next decade.

With no products for sale, it’s no surprise that Elixir has no revenue and lost about $20 million in 2006. This offering will give the company funding to continue its research and, it is hoped, to bring Glinsuna and Metgluna to market. It has a smart group of experienced health care venture capitalists on board: ARCH Ventures, MPM Capital, Oxford Bioscience and Physic Ventures. It’s a gamble, though: the company seems to have the right people in place and is looking at products that address huge market needs, but there’s no guarantee that anything will work properly, receive FDA approval, and interest doctors enough to write prescriptions.