Tag - Jtx

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq:TIVO), Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (Nasdaq:JTX) and Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq:FSR) are among the biggest percentage losers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Hawaiian Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:HA), Sauer Danfoss Inc. (Nasdaq:SHS), Lawson Products Inc. (Nasdaq:LAWS), Cato Corp. (Nasdaq:CTR), International Assets Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:IAAC) and Pervasive Software Inc. (Nasdaq:PVSW).

Acxiom Corp. (Nasdaq:ACXM), Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:AKT) and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (Nasdaq:JTX) are among the biggest percentage losers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Alyst Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq:AYA), Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:CLDX), Encore Bancshares Inc. (Nasdaq:EBTX), Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:RJET), Chemgenex Pharm Depository Receipt (Nasdaq:CXSP) and Old Second Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq:OSBC).

Cadiz Inc. (Nasdaq:CDZI), Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (Nasdaq:JTX) and Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:PMTI) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: American Woodmark Corp. (Nasdaq:AMWD), Greene County Bancorp (Nasdaq:GCBC), Kenexa Corp. (Nasdaq:KNXA), MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. (Nasdaq:MOFG) and Zoltek Companies Inc. (Nasdaq:ZOLT).

Stocks continued their drop from the opening on a pullback in energy prices and on rumors that small-cap General Motors (NYSE:GM) may file bankruptcy.  Some of today’s small-cap gainers were Gevity HR (Nasdaq:GVHR), Weight Watchers International (NYSE:WTW) and Genesco, Inc. (NYSE:GCO).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• Investors are pulling their money out of equities and piling into bonds and gold.  
• The market is extremely anxious ahead of Friday's February Labor Department report that is likely to show the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. 
• Stocks across the board were falling today, with those in the banking sector posting some of the steepest losses.
• The bad news out this morning weighed on stocks, and included a survey release that showed nearly 12% of mortgage holders are behind on payments or are in foreclosure.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Gevity HR up 85% On TriNet deal at 97% premium. See (Nasdaq:GVHR). 
• Weight Watchers International is up 16% on heavier-than-average volume. See (NYSE:WTW).
• Genesco, Inc. is up 10% after reporting positive Q4 profit results. See (NYSE:GCO).  
• Cornell Companies is up 5% after reporting a rise in Q4 profit. See (NYSE:CRN). 

Small Cap Losers:

• Solutia subsidiary moves forward with patent infringement suit; shares fall 53%. See (NYSE:SOA).
• Jackson Hewitt Tax Service falls 44% after guiding below estimates. See (NYSE:JTX).  
• GE Railcar tells Greenbrier it wants fewer railcars; GBX shares fall 31%. See (NYSE:GBX).  

LaBarge Inc. (Nasdaq:LB), Hanesbrands Inc. (Nasdaq:HBI) and Chiquita Brands International Inc. (Nasdaq:CQB) are among the new 52-week lows in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Imperial Sugar Co. (Nasdaq:IPSU), MI Developments Inc. (Nasdaq:MIM), St Mary Land & Exploration Co. (Nasdaq:SM), Northrim BanCorp Inc. (Nasdaq:NRIM), Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc (Nasdaq:JTX) and Bank of Marin Bancorp (Nasdaq:BMRC).

Targanta Therapeutics Corp. (Nasdaq:TARG), Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq:ALDN) and Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:RJET) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (Nasdaq:JTX), CPI International Inc. (Nasdaq:CPII), Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:PGC), Renaissance Learning Inc. (Nasdaq:RLRN), Northrim BanCorp Inc. (Nasdaq:NRIM) and Zygo Corp. (Nasdaq:ZIGO).

Here are the biggest percentage gainers among small caps:

Small-cap stocks resumed the slide into the midday time frame, unable to sustain a morning bounce as recession fears were rekindled by dour manufacturing data. At 11:44 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 3.66, or 0.73%, at 498.45 at the lowest point since last Friday’s erosion to five-year lows. However, trading remains volatile, with the market popping back off a 3% mid-morning slide fairly quickly.

In what has become a familiar refrain lately, the Russell started out the day in positive territory and rallied to a gain of 3.2% shortly after the opening as employment and inflation indicators came in tame. However, when the industrial production report showed manufacturing activity posted the largest decline in nearly 34 years the market started to fray at the edges, but was still in positive territory. However, even if investors were willing to shrug off the output data due to quirks like Hurricane Gustav and a strike at aircraft maker Boeing, the 10:00 a.m. ET release of the Philly Fed survey (which is an October number) was the lowest figure in some 18 years and investors gave up the fight.

The market continues to fret about the possibility for a deep recession in the United States and a slowdown around the world, which would damage profits for both domestic and export-related businesses. And even though today’s unemployment claims report was not as bad as feared (461,000 versus the 470,000 forecast), it is still a historically large number of people filing for unemployment insurance and the number of people on the unemployment line only stands to get worse in coming months. While analysts argue that employment will lag the recovery in stocks and the overall economy, it’s still uncomfortable to get in front of that trend at this stage of the market dynamic.

Looking at sector action today, the best performing areas were coal, education services, agriculture products, footwear companies, food retail firms, airlines, gas utilities and steel stocks. On the downside, life health insurers were getting . . .

Small-cap stocks took flight Thursday, soaring in response to strong chain store sales, and a bullish surprise on weekly unemployment claims. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) shot up 19.55, or 2.63%, to 763.26, the highest daily close of the year.

In the process, the Russell stormed through key long-term resistance at 750, a point that had been difficult to tackle in recent weeks. That area represented a 50% Fibonacci retracement of the entire bear market collapse, and sets the stage for a rally toward the final key retracement of 61.8%, which is near 775. The market could pause near 760, which is a logical chart-related resistance area on the way toward 775. A weekly close above 750 after jobs Friday would be an important benchmark within the ongoing rally off the March lows.

The strong performance was impressive in front of Friday’s employment report, which suggests that shorts were no longer willing to risk losing trades in front of the big release, and that new longs were comfortable taking on positions ahead of the jobs event.

The catalyst for today’s rally appeared to center on surprisingly stout monthly chain-store sales results. Apparently gasoline pump prices near $4 dollars a gallon didn’t stop consumers from heading out to the store to unload some of their tax rebate money from Uncle Sam. With the U.S. economy heavily dependent on spending for momentum, a show of strength from retailers is a welcome sign to the market.

Among retailers, discounters like Costco (Nasdaq:COST) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) had particularly impressive results, with Costco comp sales up 9% in May and Wal-Mart up 3.9%. Wal-Mart’s stock embraced the news, surging 3.5% to four-year highs. Costco was up 3.4%. And it wasn’t just a large-cap story on the retailer front. Small-caps Hot Topic Inc. (Nasdaq:HOTT) jumped some 16% as sales at the pop culture apparel and accessories store came in much better than feared. Also, Cache Inc. (Nasdaq:CACH) rose about 14% as sales at the specialty women’s apparel store . . .

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) closed lower for the fifth consecutive session on news of more subprime fallout and tech sector woes. The small-cap index declined 3.24 points, or 0.47%, to 680.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) lost 45.10 points, or 0.37%, to 12,213.80.

On a year-to-date basis, the Russell 2000 is missing 11.10%, while the Dow is down 7.92% and the S&P 500 has retreated 9.64%.

The bears dominated trading and small-cap stocks spent the entire session in negative territory. With no major economic releases scheduled, investors focused on corporate news.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) reported before the opening that it may have to cut as many as 30,000 jobs over the next year and a half due to writedowns related to the subprime mortgage mess. Additionally, Citigroup might need to raise more capital to get over the credit crunch.

Contributing to the bearish sentiment was Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), which announced after the close on Monday that it has lowered its first-quarter gross margin forecast to 54% from 56% earlier.

Small-cap stocks declined, with Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (NYSE: JTX) being one of the biggest losers. Before the opening the Parsippany, N.J.-based company posted third-quarter net income of $18.2 million, or $0.61 per share, a 34% decline from a year earlier.

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (NYSE: JTX) CEO Michael Yerington said the tax preparer expects a fiscal year tax return decline of about 5% to 6%.

“We recognize this is not an acceptable outcome,” Yerington said.

For the remainder of the fiscal year, Yerington said Jackson Hewitt will manage its discretionary spending aggressively.

Yerington said he has made changes to pursue an “aggressive growth strategy” in the five months since he took the helm as CEO. The chief executive said he reshuffled the senior management team, enhanced the call center responsiveness and reviewed the company’s infrastructure for growth.

“The changes that I’m implementing are intended to drive significant, not incremental, growth in the coming years,” Yerington said. “We’ve been telling investors we only penetrate 40% of the addressable market for far too long. While I won’t publicly disclose our growth objectives at this time, I will say that we plan to aggressively increase that 40% metric rather than merely target a couple of percentage points of growth.”

The chief executive said the growth, if successful, should provide a “significant” increase in economic growth for shareholders. He noted that if the company’s market share grew to 45%, it could generate $36 million in annual incremental revenue. To drive higher growth, the company is offering incentives to franchisees and hiring branding and consulting firms.

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) closed in negative territory as investors digested news of economic reports. The small-cap index fell 8.54 points, or 1.13%, to 745.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) added 12.76 points, or 0.10%, to 13,056.72.

Small-cap stocks opened the session in positive territory but lost steam during the second half of trading and fell into the red.

The bullish pre-market mood was due to a report by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP), which claimed that U.S. nonfarm private employment increased 40,000 in December. The provider of business outsourcing solutions attributed the rise to small- and medium-sized businesses, which added 75,000 jobs while larger companies cut 35,000.

The December figure was larger than forecasted but is almost three times below the average for three-month period from September through November.

A slowdown in employment growth is consistent with a slowdown in economic growth.

Breaking down the numbers, employment in the service-providing sector was up, while the goods-producing sector suffered its thirteenth consecutive monthly decline and manufacturing employment fell for the eighteenth consecutive month.

In other employment news, U.S. Labor Department reported that jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 29 fell 21,000 to 336,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 357,000.

However, many consider the government’s statistics to be imprecise due to the distorting effects of the Christmas holiday, which decreased the time laid-off workers have to file for benefits.