Tag - Roc

Small-cap stocks were the weakest performers in the first 90 minutes of trading Wednesday. At midmorning, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 4.2% to 424.73, while the Dow and S&P 500 were down only fractionally. Weighing on the market was news that new home construction and applications for future projects both plunged to record lows in January.

Individual small caps that were bucking the trend included lightning pole maker Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI), which was up 16% to $44.53 on stronger-than-expected Q4 earnings, and specialty chemical maker Rockwood Holdings (NYSE:ROC), whose Q4 earnings also exceeded expectations. Rockwood was up 9.56% at $8.25.

Shrinking Japan

At first glance, it might look as though the stocks market voiced its opinion of Obama’s stimulus bill with a big thumbs down on Tuesday. But the more immediate catalyst was Japan’s Q4 quarter GDP number.

Japan’s economy shrunk at a 12.7% annualized rate between October and December. That is really bad. And it goes to show just how weak the global economy is. Stimulus plans will help people weather the storm, but it’s pretty clear that $800 billion isn’t going to turn the global economy around.

Future Fortune Makers Webinar

The S&P 500 closed below an important support level at 800 yesterday. That’s got some analysts talking about a re-test of the October lows at 741. I don’t have any particular insight if we’ll see those levels again or not. To me, it’s more important to keep what’s going on in the stock market and the economy in perspective.

I launched my first advisory service in the middle of the post-Internet bubble recession. Things looked pretty bleak then, too. Investors had lost their shirts when the market collapsed. Unemployment was rising, companies were cutting costs, and then 9/11 happened.

That was the proverbial nail in the economy’s coffin. Many people thought America would be forever changed. But I knew then that the recession would reverse and the end of the American way was being greatly exaggerated.

I made some of my best investments during that recession. My readers at the . . .

Small-cap stocks fell hard Wednesday, with the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) tumbling to fresh bear market lows while sinking to the lowest point since May 2003. Financials and commodities were hammered by investors, but there really were very few safe ports in today’s stock market storm. In fact, the desire for some kind of safe place to park cash played a role in the stock market’s descent as investors pulled money out of equities and put it in low-yielding credit instruments. The Russell lost 35.13, or 7.85%, to 412.38 and is now down 46% for 2008. Meanwhile, the Dow was off 5.07% for the day and is down 40% for the year and the S&P 500 was down 6.12% Wednesday and off 45% for 2008. Both the Dow and S&P 500 also made new closing lows for the move; the intraday low for the Dow from Oct. 10 is still intact, however.

There was some sense that the difficulty in crafting a rescue package for domestic automakers was hampering market psychology. It certainly didn’t do any good for General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) stock, which was off nearly 12%. Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) was down 25%, trading well below $2 a share. While auto executives grovel for a handout from tongue-lashing lawmakers, the political hot potato bounces about without much progress, leading Senate Banking Committee chair Christopher Dodd to say that the chances for a bailout bill for automakers was “remote.”

In a fitting end to another bruising day in the stock market, the only broad S&P sector with a noteworthy gain was brewery companies. On the downside, automobile manufacturers were smashed, REITS were evicted from portfolios, health care facilities were anemic and former hot commodities like aluminum and coal were running cold.

Elsewhere on the commodities scene, crude oil prices actually edged higher, breaking free of the lock-step equities trade that had been in place of late as the onset of colder weather boosted physical energy prices. Still, it didn’t do much to heat up energy stocks, as the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund slipped 5.4%. Even the cattle market was slaughtered today, with futures for December delivery collapsing 3.3% to new contract lows, while prices on some continuous charts were at . . .