Tag - Ttmi

Small-cap stocks were slightly lower early this morning, pulled down by a rash of weak profit reports and gloomy outlooks amid ongoing concerns about the economic environment. Energy stocks were a soft spot for the market as crude oil tumbled to fresh four-year lows. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are BioSpecifics Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq:BSTC), Apogee Enterprises Inc. (Nasdaq:APOG) and TTM Tech Inc. (Nasdaq:TTMI).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The dollar rallied into positive territory against the euro after taking a hit overnight, which could weigh on various commodity markets.  
• Crude oil prices tumbled to four-year lows Wednesday and extended that slide today, off some $1.50 a barrel this morning.  
• The energy market was on the mend overnight, but started sinking fast into the stock market open.  
• This morning, analysts at UBS lowered their forecast for 2009 profit estimates for the S&P 500

Small Cap Gainers:

• BioSpecifics Technologies Corp. jumped 41% as the biopharma firm announced a licensing agreement with Pfizer Inc. See (Nasdaq:BSTC).  
• Apogee Enterprises Inc. rose 12% as the glass maker received an earnings-related lift. See (Nasdaq:APOG).  
• TTM Tech Inc. rose 8% as the circuit board manufacturer continues to climb off the November lows. See (Nasdaq:TTMI).  
• FedEx Corp. met the current forecast, but warned that 2009 looked quite weak and said they would cut costs to prepare. See (NYSE:FDX). 

Small Cap Losers:

• Tennant Co. slumped 19% as the safety solutions firm announced restructuring plans amid slower sales. See (NYSE:TNC).  
• Atheros Communications falls 9.3% in pre-market after being cut to "hold" by Deutsche Bank. See (Nasdaq:ATHR).  
• Actuant earnings slashed in first quarter, shares tumble 7%. See (NYSE:ATU). 
• JP Morgan cuts Bucyrus to "neutral;" shares down 4% in pre-market. See (Nasdaq:BUCY).  

Small-cap stocks were slightly lower early this morning, pulled down by a rash of weak profit reports and gloomy outlooks amid ongoing concerns about the economic environment. Energy stocks were a soft spot for the market as crude oil tumbled to fresh four-year lows. At 10:05 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 1.24, or 0.20%, at 485.35.

The Philly Fed report came in at 39.3, which was up from last month’s reading, but still slightly below the consensus forecast. The leading indicators report was down 0.4%, which was in line with projections.

Earlier this morning ahead of the opening, the weekly claims report came in at 554,000, which was in line with market projections, but still awful historically. The four-week moving average on claims rose to 543,750, which is the highest level since December 1982. Continuing claims edged down 4.384 million, down from 4.431, which is a mildly positive development – but again, these numbers are still among the highest in a generation and the overall employment picture in the United States is expected to get worse over the next couple of months.

Bullish traders will say that all the dreadful economic news is a known factor and is already priced into the market. What’s more, most of the profit news has been awful as well, but is also subject to the “been there, done that” market response. This morning, analysts at UBS lowered their forecast for 2009 profit estimates for the . . .

Royale Energy Inc (Nasdaq:ROYL), HKN Inc (Nasdaq:HKN) and Northern Oil and Gas Inc (Nasdaq:NOG) are among the new 52-week highs in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Acorda Therapeutics Inc (Nasdaq:ACOR), TTM Technologies Inc (Nasdaq:TTMI) and Graham Corp (Nasdaq:GHM) are also among the new 52-week highs.

Here are the new 52-week highs among small caps:

Superconductor Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCON), Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (Nasdaq: LEND) and Rackable Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: RACK) are among the most actively traded companies in Thursday pre-market trading among those with market capitalizations under $500 million:

Houston Wire & Cable Co. (Nasdaq: HWCC), Crystal River Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CRZ) and NovaStar Financial Inc. (NYSE: NFI) are the biggest percentage losers in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage losers:

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) are trading sideways on news of conflicting economic reports and credit worries.

At 10:48 a.m. ET the Russell 2000 was down 7.14 points, or 0.92%, to 768.98. The Dow had shed 52.44 points, or 0.40%, to 13,159.65.

An index of pending home resales surprisingly added 5% in June following a 3.7% decline in May, the National Association of Realtors reported after the opening bell.

That’s a sign that the U.S. housing sector may be stabilizing.

Separately, the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index dropped to 53.8 in June, below the forecast 55.5. The index stood at 56 in May. Still, a reading above 50 is a sign of expansion, suggesting that strong global economic growth is driving demand for U.S. manufactured goods.

The indices opened with brief gains but quickly slipped into negative territory following renewed concerns about loans and securities derived from home mortgages. Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. (NYSE: BSC) triggered the selling after it said that it will prevent investors from pulling their money out of a troubled hedge fund that had bet on securities backed by subprime mortgages.

The following are the most actively traded company's with market capitalizations under $500 million:

The following were the most actively traded companies in Wednesday's trading among those with market capitalizations under $500 million:

The Russell 2000 index is posting strong gains in midday trading while reports of strong earnings from major players are lifting all indices.  In specific small cap action, news of record revenues lifted shares of Interactive Intelligence, Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ), and TTM Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TTMI) is up after reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

At 2:16 p.m. ET the Russell 2000 had added 12.89 points, or 1.58 percent, to 829.14.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 104.26 points, or 0.79 percent, to 13,240.40, on track for a second consecutive record close.

These are the biggest percentage gainers among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million: