Tag - Type

Small-cap stocks took a dive on the opening, unable to sustain the upward momentum off Thursday afternoon’s surge as financial stocks were getting clobbered. Sloppy August retail sales took a toll on the market, but financial stocks were under stress even before the economic data came out this morning. On the bright side, commodity stocks were keeping index products from really sinking. At 10:02 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 6.21, or 0.86%, at 712.78.

The big news so far this morning was that August retail sales came in below expectations, with the headline figure at minus 0.3% when traders were looking for a rise of 0.2%. In addition, the figures for July were revised downward, which added to the sloppy tone. The PPI report came out at the same time this morning as retail sales, and the inflation picture was a little brighter than forecast, but the PPI was overshadowed by retail sales. In addition, the “core” rate on PPI was in line with expectations at 0.2%, so the overall decline of 0.9% that topped the minus 0.5% forecast was dulled because clearly energy prices have been on the decline.

The Michigan sentiment survey came in with a big surprise this morning, which helped stabilize stocks. The figure was at 73.1 in September — the highest reading in eight months and well above the forecast of 64. Meanwhile, the business inventory report came in at 1.1%, which was above the forecast of 0.5%.

Financial shares were once again a sore spot for the index products, as the market fretted over the future of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH), especially on talk this morning that the government isn’t that eager to step in and bail out the nation’s fourth largest investment bank. LEH shares were down 17% shortly after the open. Other “name” financial shares in the glare this morning included American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG), which was down 18% at the lowest prices in more than a decade.

Crude oil price action will also be a focal point today as the market braces for Hurricane Ike to make landfall. Shortly after the open, crude oil futures were up about $1 a barrel. Also, other commodity markets were in rally mode as . . .

Moldflow Corp. (Nasdaq:MFLO), BluePhoenix Solutions, Ltd. (Nasdaq:BPHX) and Magma Design Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA) are among the most actively traded companies in Friday's pre-market trading among those with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:TYPE), Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq:SOLF) and Hansen Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq:HNSN) are also among the most actively traded small-cap companies in pre-market trading.

Here are the most actively traded small-cap companies in Friday's pre-market trading:

What is so exciting about font?

If the above sentence hasn't convinced you that a lot of people take the print on their computer or cell phone screen very seriously, consider this: college dropout and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) founder Steve Jobs believes that a calligraphy class he audited years ago might have led to the most valuable lesson learned during his short stint at Reed College.

Years later, during a commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs waxed nostalgic about all the different typefaces he learned, how different space sizes between letters completely changed the look and the feel of the printed word, and how this knowledge came in handy when he was working on the design of the first Macintosh computer.

Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE) of Woburn, Mass., is a company that gets the importance of typeface. The small cap, which went public last year, specializes in text imaging technology that can bring higher-quality and more varied fonts to a range of electronic devices like laser printers, digital copiers, mobile phones and digital televisions.

It emerges as a publicly traded company at a time when more and more people are recognizing — either consciously or subconsciously — the importance of type to make work documents look more professional, cell phone address books prettier and MySpace pages more eye-catching.