Tag - Hoo

Banner Corp (Nasdaq:BANR), Cascal NV (Nasdaq:HOO), China Security & Surveillance Technology Inc (Nasdaq:CSR) and W Holdings Co Inc (Nasdaq:WHI) are among the biggest percentage losers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Small-cap stocks edged lower Tuesday, pulled down by a soft tone in financial shares and a batch of downbeat economic data. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) lost 4.17, or 0.56%, to 736.57, snapping a string of three consecutive higher sessions.

The stock market was unable to recapture the buying enthusiasm that appeared to be in play overnight when stock index derivatives churned higher on yet another media report that the Federal Reserve was not on the brink of raising interest rates. On Monday, it was the Washington Post saying that Fed officials are not ready to hike rates, then The Wall Street Journal reported the same thing today to help drive the point home.

There is a sense right now that financial markets still need low interest rates to gain access to cheap money and that rising rates too soon to fight inflation could cripple any economic recovery. What’s more, we’re heading into an election and unemployment is rising, which hardly makes for an opportune time to raise interest rates.

However, the after-hours upside push from the rate story failed to gain traction during the actual trading session today. Ironically, on a day when Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) released upbeat earnings that topped the estimate, Goldman Sachs analysts downgraded the outlook for banks and said that the credit crisis won’t run its course until 2009. The investment banking firm lowered price targets for 14 banks and many of those banks took a hit today, including Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), which tumbled more than 3%.

In fact, financial shares were among the biggest broad market losers today, with regional banks slipping over 5%, diversified banks down about 3%, thrifts and mortgage finance firms down about 3.8%, consumer finance stocks off 3.7% and multiline insurance stocks down over 3.7%. On the upside, fertilizers, oil . . .

Digital Ally, Inc. (Nasdaq:DGLY), Metalico, Inc. (AMEX:MEA) and Cascal B.V. (NYSE:HOO) were among the new 52-week highs established during Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations or values under $750 million.

UFP Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:UFPT), Raining Data Corp. (Nasdaq:RDTA) and PHI Inc. (Nasdaq:PHIIK) were also among the 52-week small-cap highs.

Here are Thursday's 52-week small-cap highs: