Small caps eye mild opening dip
Small-caps stocks were expected to open slightly lower in line with a mild overnight dip in most stock index products. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was off about 0.1% in after-hours trading, which would translate to a cash opening near 729.
The productivity report, which came out at 8:30 a.m. ET, was better than forecast, with the headline number up 2.2%, compared with the median prediction for a gain of 1.6%.
The U.S. dollar was on a roll this morning, up 0.6%, or nearly 100 bps versus the euro, and up 0.4% against the yen, which should provide some support to the market if the dollar can hold those gains during the U.S. trading session.
In overseas trading, European shares had a nice recovery move, climbing from a loss of 0.8% to a gain of 0.3%. Equities in Asia were mixed, but tilted to the negative side, with Japan’s Nikkei up 0.38%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 2.48% and China shares down 4.73%.
Headline stocks in the news this morning included Disney (NYSE:DIS) and Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO), up 2% and down 0.3% respectively, in after-hours trading following earnings postings. Clearwire Corp. (Nasdaq:CLWR) shot up 21% and Sprint (NYSE:S) was up about 4% as the two companies announced they would combine wireless broadband operations, which includes a $3.2 billion investment in Clearwire From Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC), Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq:CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE:TWC).
