Tag - Qepc

Stocks started positive in morning trading, but quickly gave ground before the noon lunch hour Eastern time and never recovered. The Dow Jones Industrials were down 1.25% to close at 8,504; the Nasdaq closed down 1.11% at 1,796; and the S&P 500 shed 1.27% to end the day at 912.

Small-cap stocks, as measured by the Russell 2000 Index, fared worse, giving up 1.22% to close at 505.

Today's small-cap gainers were lead by STEC Inc (Nasdaq:STEC), a California-based memory chip maker, up 29%. STEC increased its Q2 financial outlook stating that improved sales of its ZeusIOPS solid-state drive product line had caused the company to revision its guidance. STEC now expects adjusted earnings of between 32 and 36 cents per share.

Other small-caps showing leadership include La-Z-Boy, (NYSE:LZB) up 22% on news that it returned to profitability in Q4 and beating analysts' EPS estimates; Merge Healthcare (Nasdaq:MRGE) up 17%; Alvarion (Nasdaq:ALVR) up 16%; and Satyam Computer Services (NYSE:SAY) up 16%.

Small-cap decliners were lead by Matrixx Initiatives (Nasdaq:MTXX) down 70% on receiving a warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discontinue selling it's Zicam product and for consumer to stop using it immediately. The FDA has indicated that there have been 130 reported cases of people losing the sense of smell after using the products. Zicam is a leading product for preventing and minimizing the effects of the common cold when the patient uses the product at the first symptoms of a cold. The FDA action affects only the nasal swabs and gels and does not apply to the tablets or lozenges.

Although Matrixx is on record stating that the product does not cause a loss of smell the company has indicated that it will consider withdrawing the products in questions, which in total account for roughly 40 percent of its sales.

Other small-cap decliners include Myriad Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:MYRXV) down 32%; Magyar Bancorp (Nasdaq:MGYR) down 34%; A-Power Energy Generation Systems (Nasdaq:APWR) down 24% on news that first quarter earnings fell by nearly half; and two of yesterday's leaders: Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:JAZZ) down 17% and QEP (Nasdaq:QEPC) down 15%. 

*****Jason Cimpl, technical analyst at TradeMaster Daily Stock Alerts, called yesterday's 2.5% drop on the S&P 500 to a tee. If you watched the video chart analysis from Jason that I included in Friday's Daily Profit, then you were ready for Monday's sell-off. I hope you were able to profit from it.

And bonus points to Jason for calling the closing level of the S&P within 2 points. I think Jason's video chart analysis will be a welcome addition to Daily Profit. Look for the next one in Friday's edition.

******If it weren't for gasoline, prices at the wholesale level would have fallen 0.1% in May. Still, prices are off 5% from this time last year. That's the biggest drop in 50 years. Is this good news?

Not for corporate profits, and so probably not for valuations. And not for the Fed, who's terrified of deflation. But for the crowd expecting runaway inflation because of a weaker dollar and rising interest rates, it might be.

It should be obvious that weak demand and high unemployment will keep a lid on prices in the short-term. Remember too that it took 18 months before rising oil prices really started to find their way into the prices of consumer goods, too. Right now, inflation expectations are just that - expectations.

Still, those expectations have helped oil and commodity prices run higher…

*****And inflation expectations aren't the only thing driving commodity prices higher. Demand from emerging markets, especially China and India, remains fairly strong. After all, these countries have money to spend to help re-inflate their economies.

Jason Cimpl will be discussing the outlook for inflation and commodity prices in a special video conference next Wednesday, June 24 at 6:00 P.M. It's totally free, and Jason will share his top gold stocks with attendees (yes, we see significant upside for certain gold stocks). This video conference is free of charge, you can sign up HERE.

*****The Ural mountain city of Yekaterinburg, Russia takes center stage in global economic news today. The BRIC countries--Brazil, Russia, India and China--are holding their first ever summit starting today. The U.S. is not invited.

That's because these emerging economic giants want more control over the global economy. And with a combined 42% of global currency reserves, they are in position to throw their weight around a little.

It's no secret that the U.S. depends on these countries to buy our Treasuries and fund our bailout and stimulus plans, not to mention our trade deficit. So the news that these countries will be discussing plans to diversify away from American bonds and buy IMF bonds is important for the U.S. dollar. Just last week Brazil pledged $10 billion purchase IMF bonds. That's a far cry from the day's when Brazil was synonymous with hyper-inflation and a poster child for coming to the developed world hat-in-hand.

But there's more to the story, especially with China. Some estimate that China has as much as $1.3 trillion of foreign reserves, most of it in dollars. And right now, China is putting that money to work stockpiling commodities and supporting its economy. So buying Chinese stocks, especially Chinese commodity stocks, is a great idea right now.

At SmallCapInvestor PRO, we just loaded up on Chinese stocks. I believe this is the one reliable growth story in the world today. I've got a Special Report ready with my top investment recommendations; you can get a copy HERE. 

Investors saw lots of red in today’s trading session as regional manufacturing data suggested that economy is not picking up as much as had been hoped. Most economists had expected gains in the New York Fed’s manufacturing index but were instead treated to numbers indicating that the factory sector shrank at a more severe rate than expected.

A stronger U.S. dollar pulled oil below $70 away from its eight month high.

As of press time, 3:30 P.M. Eastern, the Dow was down -194.75 to 8,604.50; the Nasdaq was down -46.29 to 1,812.51, and the S&P 500 was down -23.25 at 922.96.

The Russell 2000 Index, comprised of the top 2,000 small-cap stocks, was down 16.77 at 510.06.

Bucking the downward trend today was pharma and financials. Two of the top percentage gainers were JazzPharma (Nasdaq:JAZZ) up 69.7% on positive news about it fibromyalgia drug and MAP Pharma (Nasdaq:MAPP) up 11.89%. MAPP has been on a tear since late May when it shot up to $11.39 from $3.15.

Other small-caps showing leadership today include QEP (Nasdaq:QEPC) up 39.07%, Tongxin Intl (Nasdaq:TXICU) up 24.75%, and two financials, American Capital (Nasdaq:ACAS) up 14.67% and New Century Bancorp (Nasdaq:NCBC) up 14.83%.

Small-cap decliners were lead by Oil-Dri Corp. of America (NYSE:ODC) down 23.24% following Friday’s news that it will lose its largest customer in the cat litter retail segment. Other leading decliners include Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE:VM) down 16.98%, book retailer Borders Group (NYSE:BGP) down 13.16%, and Integrated Electrical Services (Nasdaq:IESC) down 17.64%.

*****Summer doesn’t officially start for a few more days. Tell that to the parents who are now getting their kids off to camp or getting ready for vacation. For the standard two-income household, living easy in summertime is just a memory.

Including today, we have just 12 more trading days until the end of June and the end of the second quarter. I suspect we will have seen the highs for stock prices by then. That is, if we haven’t seen them already.

Oil backed off recent highs on Friday. And that’s likely to continue. Oil was too cheap at $33 a barrel. But $73 is too high, at least for now while much of the developed world is still mired in an economic downturn. We know demand is still weak. And we know there are looming supply issues when demand picks back up. However, the issue right now is the economy.

*****Oil has been rallying as the news cycle has been relentlessly optimistic about an imminent economic recovery. In fact, many leading economists expect U.S. GDP to actually grow in the third quarter.

Oil stocks that we’ve been following have been on a tear the market bottom, including Graham Corp. (AMEX:GHM) up 81%; Brigham Exploration (Nasdaq:BEXP) up 239%; Gulfport Energy Corp. (Nasdaq:GPOR) up 326%. Even the majors like ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), BP (NYSE:BP), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) are bringing investors some decent returns, though not as great as small-cap stocks in the same sector.

Investors have bought the rumor of economic recovery. We’ll see how they respond to the news. I’ll be watching oil as the leading indicator for economic expectations.

Right now, it seems like stock prices have priced in a modest recovery. And if investors perceive that there’s not much upside left for stock prices, it would makes sense to trim exposure, take profits, or however you want to put it.

*****We’ve seen anecdotal evidence that investors are moving funds out of the stocks that have led the market higher. Technology has been having trouble making headway. And we’ve seen strength in healthcare and consumer staple stocks. Plus, the Volatility Index (VIX), which measures the cost of put options (which rise in value as stocks or indices fall, thereby giving investors downside protection) has been on the rise.

This suggests that investors are preparing for a downside move for stock prices, or, at the very least, protecting gains they have made.

*****On Mondays, I’m going to start offering a look at the economic data coming out during the week ahead. This week is a bit unusual as all the economic data is out on Tuesday. Tomorrow we get Housing Starts, Building Permits and the Producer Price Index (PPI).

Of course, consumers will focus on the housing numbers. But I’d expect any numbers will be interpreted with optimism. Investors seem to understand that the bottoming process for the housing market will be volatile and that wild swings in the data should be expected.

In my opinion, the PPI is the one to watch. The U.S. dollar rallied a bit last week, but there’s no doubt that massive Treasury bond sales have investors worried about a weaker dollar the potential for inflation to pick up. Add to that improving retail sales numbers, helped by higher gasoline prices, and you have the potential for a higher-than-expected PPI reading. Needless to say, that would not be good for stocks.

I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Ian Wyatt

P.S. You’ll recall from Friday’s issue we start sharing charting analysis from TradeMaster’s technical analyst, Jason Cimpl. If you didn’t have a chance to catch, here’s the link. You’ll get his take on this week’s market direction. Since this is a new feature for Daily Profit I’d greatly appreciate receiving any feedback from you on it.

China Technology Development Group Corp. (Nasdaq: CTDC), Novatel Inc. (Nasdaq: NGPS) and AMREP Corp. (NYSE: AXR) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers:

Q.E.P. Co., Inc. (Nasdaq: QEPC), Gyrodyne Company of America, Inc. (Nasdaq: GYRO) and Tufco Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TFCO) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers:

Christopher & Banks Corp. (NYSE: CBK), Servidyne, Inc. (Nasdaq: SERV) and Glen Burnie Bancorp (Nasdaq: GLBZ) are among the biggest percentage losers in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers:

Grill Concepts, Inc. (Nasdaq: GRIL), Capital Alliance Income (AMEX: CAA) and ACA Capital Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ACA) are the biggest percentage losers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage losers:

Q.E.P. Co., Inc. (Nasdaq: QEPC), ACA Capital Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ACA) and HydroGen Corp. (Nasdaq: HYDG) the biggest percentage gainers in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers:

Hearst Communications sold 243,128 of paid-search provider Local.com Corp. (Nasdaq: LOCM) at $9.07, according to Briefing.com.

Home improvement products maker Q.E.P. Co., Inc. (Nasdaq: QEPC) reported first-quarter sales of $57 million, above estimates of $54 million.

Qiao Xing Universal Telephone Inc. (Nasdaq: XING) filed with the SEC a form to release its annual report and restate its financial data from fiscal years 2003, 2004 and 2005.

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