Tag - Suai

TM Entertainment and Media Units (Nasdaq:TMI.U), Books-A-Million Inc. (Nasdaq:BAMM) and ICU Medical Inc. (Nasdaq:ICUI) are among the new 52-week highs in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

The broad markets were all down today on the negative outlook from the World Bank. The Dow was down 2.35% to close at 8,339; the Nasdaq posted even bigger losses, down 3.35%, closing at 1,766; and the S&P 500 shaved 3.06% off from its open.

The Russell 2000, the widely followed index of the 2,000 largest small cap stocks, was down 3.68% to close at 494.

Fighting the overall downward trend and leading small-caps was Specialty Underwriters' Alliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:SUAI) posting at 56% gain to close at $6.18 on news that it agreed to be purchased by Tower Group (Nasdaq:TWGP) at year end. Specialty Underwriters' offers commercial property and casualty insurance products in the United States. Tower Group was down 4% to close at $23.04.

Other small-caps bucking the selling include Oncothyreon (Nasdaq:ONTY) up 33% on news of testing start for a late-stage study on the breast cancer treatment Stimuvax; MTR Gaming (Nasdaq:MNTG) up 21%; and Security National Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:SNFCA) up 20%.

Leading small-cap decliners today was LodgeNet Interactive (Nasdaq:LNET) posting a 22% loss for the day to close at $3.54. LodgeNet, a provider of Internet and advertising services, announced on Monday that it plans a profit offering of $50 million worth of convertible preferred shares. One half of the proceeds will be used to pay down the outstanding balance on its loan while the remainder will be used as general working capital.

Other small-cap decliners include Rex Energy (Nasdaq:REXX) down 19.5%; Warren Resources (Nasdaq:WRES) down 20%; and China Medical (Nasdaq:CMED) down 19%.

*****Oil is down again. The World Bank has lowered its growth projections for the global economy. In March, the World Bank was calling for a 1.7% contraction in global GDP. Now, it says the global economy will shrink by 2.7%. That's a pretty big revision.

The forecasts for China and India are about the only bright spots.

Traders are taking profits on oil stocks, which suggests they don't see a lot of upside for oil prices right now. Demand is still down, and we're not seeing a runaway economic recovery.

*****Here's your look ahead at the economic data for the week. Tomorrow, June 24, we get existing home sales.

We get new home sales on Wednesday as well as durable goods orders, oil inventories and the Fed will tell us that they aren't changing the overnight lending rate.

Durable goods orders will be a market mover. Last month, you'll recall, the number came in above expectations. Another strong reading would be great, but I have my doubts that it will happen. We should be expecting month to month swings in data like durable goods orders. It seems too early to establish a trend higher.

Thursday, we get initial jobless claims and the final First Quarter GDP number. The initial report is that the economy contracted at a 5.7% annualized rate. There may be an upward revision but I doubt that would be significant. Investors want to believe that the economy bottomed in the First Quarter, so this number gets a pass.

Finally on Friday, we get personal income and spending, the Michigan sentiment review.

*****Jason Cimpl, technical analyst at TradeMaster Daily Stock Alerts, gave us his weekly forecast for the major indices on Friday. If you missed it, here's the LINK. Jason's forecast was near perfect last week. We'll see how he does this week. 

*****We'll be discussing our bullish outlook for commodity stocks in next Wednesday's Video Conference. It's titled Inflation Busters: Discover the Stocks to Grow and Protect Your Wealth and will air on Wednesday, June 24 at 6 pm. It's free to attend, you can sign up HERE.

 

Hallmark Financial Services Inc. (Nasdaq:HALL) shares dropped 7% on Wednesday after Specialty Underwriters’ Alliance Inc. (Nasdaq:SUAI) said it will not reconsider Hallmark’s offer to obtain outstanding stock of Specialty Underwriters for shares of common stock of Hallmark. On Tuesday, Hallmark reaffirmed its offer to buy all outstanding shares for $6.50 per share in stock. Hallmark made its initial offer in June. Specialty Underwriters’ Alliance said Hallmark’s second proposal was just a “restatement of the original.”

Fort Worth, Texas-based Hallmark Financial and Chicago-based Specialty Underwriters’ Alliance are both property and casualty insurance groups.