Tag - Lpsn

Small-cap stocks remained higher into mid-session, underpinned by a few bright spots on the earnings front, M&A enthusiasm and confirmation of Timothy Geithner’s appointment as Treasury Department Secretary. However, record low consumer confidence kept some buyers at bay. Some of today’s small-cap gainers were Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq:NFLX), Patriot Coal Corp. (NYSE:PCX) and Massey Energy Co. (NYSE:MEE).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• Outside of coal, energy shares are down, with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund off about 0.1% in line with slumping crude oil futures.  
• The chart picture for small caps shows that the market is trapped in a mini-range loosely defined by the inauguration day collapse.  
• Copper took a 5% nosedive in overseas trading, which is a troubling sign for the economy as copper is a key ingredient in building.  
• On Thursday, new home sales data will help provide further information about the housing market.

Small Cap Gainers:

• Netflix Inc. jumped 14% on heavy volume following surprisingly positive earnings figures. See (Nasdaq:NFLX).   
• Among coal stocks, small-cap company Patriot Coal Corp. was up 2.7%, while Massey Energy Co. was up 3.2%. See (NYSE:PCX) and (NYSE:MEE).
• Resource America Inc. was only slightly higher at midday, but was seeing unusually brisk volume, especially for such a tight daily range. See (Nasdaq:REXI).

Small Cap Losers:

• Olin Corp. fell 12% on brisk volume tied to earnings news. See (Nasdaq:OLIN).  
• UAL Corp., parent company of United Airlines, is off about 8%. See (Nasdaq:UAUA).  
• The AMEX Airline Index was off 6.3%, with small-cap carrier US Airways Group Inc. down 12%. See (NYSE:LCC).
• LivePerson Inc. was off about 2.6% on a jump in turnover without any apparent fresh news. See (Nasdaq:LPSN).  

Small-cap stocks remained higher into mid-session, underpinned by a few bright spots on the earnings front, M&A enthusiasm and confirmation of Timothy Geithner’s appointment as Treasury Department Secretary. However, record low consumer confidence kept some buyers at bay. At 12:22 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was up 6.45, or 1.43%, at 456.39.

The consumer confidence report came in this morning at 37.7, which was below the forecast of 39 and at record lows as consumers fret about sinking house prices and rising unemployment. Speaking of house prices, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index tumbled 18.2% from year-ago levels, which clouded some of the optimism from Monday’s more upbeat existing home sales data.

As for big-cap earnings news, American Express, US Steel and Texas Instruments helped offset weak reports from Verizon Communications and DuPont Co. and provided a small sliver of hope that an awful earnings season will still serve up some glimmer of good news.

Looking at sector activity so far today, coal stocks, steel companies, health-care distributors, diversified banks, motorcycle manufacturers, industrial conglomerates, advertising agencies, office electronics and semiconductor firms were the top performers. On the downside, airlines, oil refiners, electrical equipment manufacturers, telecoms, internet retailers, home improvement retailers, home furnishing retailers and food distributors were the weakest performers.

Looking at airlines, the AMEX Airline Index was off 6.3%, with small-cap carrier US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE:LCC) down 12%. Meanwhile, UAL Corp. (Nasdaq:UAUA) was off about 8%. The big news on the airline front came from big-cap carrier Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL), as the world’s largest firm tumbled 18% . . .

Investors reacted negatively to LivePerson, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: LPSN) announcement after Monday’s closing bell that it is buying online chat company Kasamba, Inc. for approximately $40 million in cash and stock.

IXYS Corp. (Nasdaq: IXYS) shares are taking a dive after the Santa Clara, Calif.-based semiconductor company cut its second-quarter revenue outlook to $70 million, from the previous $74 million.

These are the biggest percentage losers in Tuesday’s trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million:

It will be a long time before investors forget the dot-com meltdown that started in April of 2000. But there was a problem with the young, overly exuberant dot-com industry. You cannot ship pet supplies or groceries through the internet.

The technology community has gotten smarter. Most are now selling bits, not atoms, through the Internet. One of the hottest categories is providing software as a service (SaaS). Companies such as SalesForce.com host their software on their own large computers. Instead of shoving software into a box and shipping it, they lease it out as a service—kind of like subscribing to a movie channel instead of buying DVDs. This not only simplifies things for the customer, it provides a more predictable revenue stream.

One dot-com company, LivePerson Inc. (Nasdaq: LPSN), barely survived its trial by fire in the crash. Launched in 1995 to provide text-based chat software for corporate Web sites, it went public in April 2000 at nearly $10, and by mid-2001 was trading at $0.11.

But LivePerson is now coming back to life with a hosted service that does a very neat trick. Its software, Timpani, helps convert people who visit a vendor’s site into paying customers. Timpani can analyze the “click stream” of anyone visiting a site to identify which are potential buyers.

The following are the most actively traded companies in pre-market trading among those with market capitalizations under $500 million: