Tag - Mw

Bronco Drilling Co Inc. (Nasdaq:BRNC), LMI Aerospace Inc. (Nasdaq:LMIA) and Men's Wearhouse Inc. (Nasdaq:MW) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: National Western Life Insurance Co. (Nasdaq:NWLI), Santander Bancorp (Nasdaq:SBP), Hanesbrands Inc. (Nasdaq:HBI), Steak n Shake Company (Nasdaq:SNS), Hexcel Corp. (Nasdaq:HXL) and Hingham Institution for Savings (Nasdaq:HIFS).

Small-cap stocks pushed higher on the opening, maintaining an early gain on a jump in consumer confidence that helped counter absolutely dreadful reports on the housing market. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are Highland Steel & Vanadium Corp. Ltd. (Nasdaq:HSVLY), TechTarget Inc.(Nasdaq:TTGT) and Synchronoss Technologies (Nasdaq:SNCR).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• In overnight trading, European shares were slightly firm, but Asia stocks took a hit, with car makers still in the spotlight.  
• Despite the gloomy home news, consumer confidence as seen in the Michigan sentiment survey rose to 60.1, better than the forecast of 58.6.  
• The truly scary news came from the existing home sales data, which showed sales at an annual rate of 4.49M units, off the 4.93M forecast.  
• The new home sales report came in at an annualized rate of 407,000 units, which was below the forecast for 415,000. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• Highland Steel & Vanadium Corp. Ltd. jumped 12% and shows promising bottoming action on daily charts as the South African steel maker struggles to recover off the November lows. See (Nasdaq:HSVLY).  
• TechTarget Inc. was up nearly 10% as the IT media firm tries to sustain a nice rally off the November lows. See (Nasdaq:TTGT).  
• Synchronoss Technologies up 5% following a raised price target last week. See (Nasdaq:SNCR).
• Loral Space and Communications Inc. was up 2.8% trying to recoup some of the big slide Monday. See (Nasdaq:LORL).  

Small Cap Losers:

• American Greetings Corp. slumped 21% as the greeting card company took an earnings-related hit. See (NYSE:AM).  
• AgFeed Industries dips over 3% on very light volume. See (Nasdaq:FEED).  
• The Men's Wearhouse declines 3%, extending Monday's dramatic fall. See (NYSE:MW).
• Krispy Kreme Doughnuts dips on light volume, hovering near a 52-week low of $1.76. See (NYSE:KKD).