Bearish opening for small caps
The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) opened in the red on news that U.S. orders of durable goods unexpectedly declined in February.
At 10:00 a.m. ET, the small-cap index had declined 5.56 points, or 0.79%, to 699.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) was off 89.79 points, or 0.72%, to 12,442.81.
New orders for manufactured durable goods decreased $3.6 billion, or 1.7%, to $210.6 billion in February, the U.S. Census Bureau announced before the opening. Economists were expecting durable goods, which are goods expected to last at least three years, to increase 0.8% after falling a downwardly revised 4.7% in January.
Shipments declined while inventories and unfulfilled orders increased.
Elsewhere in the same report, orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, an important measure of business spending, also declined.
With stocks small and large falling, China Sunergy Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq:CSUN) are bucking the trend. Shares of the solar cell maker are brighter as investors focus on news before the opening of better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue.
Meanwhile, Origin Agritech Ltd. (Nasdaq:SEED), which supplies seeds, reported after the closing on Tuesday that it suffered a first-quarter loss. The stock is down 5%.
