Tag - Nym

Paragon Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq:PRGN), Crawford Ord Shs Class B (Nasdaq:CRD.B) and Dycom Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:DY) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Nymagic Inc. (Nasdaq:NYM), North American Energy Partners Inc. (Nasdaq:NOA), VanceInfo Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:VIT), Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:CLDX), Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:OPTR) and Susser Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq:SUSS).

Small-cap stocks slumped on the opening, pulled down by a sudden surge in crude oil prices, which hit a fresh record high ahead of the stock market opening. At 10:00 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was off 2.30, or 0.31%, at 731.32.

Crude oil prices were undergoing a sleepy overnight rally toward the $136 zone, then abruptly shot up above $139 dollars a barrel, clearly unfazed by talk from Saudi Arabia that they would increase production. The dramatic rise in crude oil was accompanied by a slide in the U.S. dollar against the euro, which was off about 0.8%. Crude oil was not the only commodity market on a roll this morning, as silver rose some 5%, gold prices jumped 2% and grains markets were called sharply higher.

Earlier this morning, the NY Manufacturing Survey came in below expectations, which put the market on the defensive before the crude oil price spike delivered a knockout punch for stocks. The manufacturing report came out at minus 8.68 for June, well below the median forecast for a dip of 2, and eroding from last month’s figure of minus 3.23.

The financial sector remains in the spotlight this week, with Lehman Bros. (NYSE:LEH) announcing quarterly results ahead of the opening today. Earnings were in line with expectations, but the stock will likely take direction based on forward guidance. Shortly after the open, LEH shares were up 0.4%. In other large-cap financial news, American International Group (NYSE:AIG) was down 2%, after announcing that the CEO will be replaced. Also on the large-cap front, General Electric (NYSE:GE) shares were off 1.8% after being downgraded overnight by analysts at JP Morgan.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did not comment on the outlook for the U.S. economy at a speech today on health-care reform. Over the weekend, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak said that Bernanke does not intend to raise . . .