Small caps down on credit tensions
The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) opened in negative territory as credit jitters continue to weigh down the financial sector.
At 10:26 a.m. ET, the small-cap index was down 6.54 points, or 0.86%, to 753.43. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) had lost 36.25 points, or 0.27%, to 13,278.32.
The futures were pointing down and stocks predictably opened with a drop on news that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) downgraded Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) to “sell” from “market perform.”
All three New York-based financial services companies had invested in securities backed by subprime mortgages and have been negatively affected by the slump in the U.S. housing sector.
Financial stocks have been taking a beating over the past months, and today JPMorgan lowered its estimates for the sector’s fiscal fourth quarter and 2008.
Elsewhere, the major foreign stock exchanges ended lower. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1%, while the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 shed 1.1%.
Here are the current biggest percentage gainers and losers among companies with a market cap between $100 million and $750 million:
Biggest percentage gainers:
• CMGI Inc. (CMGI), up 21% despite news of a decline in fiscal first-quarter net income.
• America’s Car-Mart, Inc. (CRMT), up 16% on news it swung to a fiscal second-quarter profit.
• Origin Agritech Ltd. (SEED), up 11%.
Biggest percentage losers:
• Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. (CDTI), down 11%.
• Meritage Homes Corp. (MTH) down 7%.
• Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MIPI), down 6%.
