Small caps flat on durable goods
The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) is flat on news of a worse-than-expected decline in January durable goods.
At 10:12 a.m. ET, the small-cap index is up 0.64 points, or 0.09%, to 717.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) was down 27.35 points, or 0.22%, to 12,657.57.
Durable goods fell 5.3% in January to a seasonally adjusted level of $212.80 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported before the start of trading. Economists were expecting to see a 4% decline following a downwardly revised increase of 4.4% in December.
Durable goods are goods designed to last at least three years.
The report also showed that nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a key measure of business spending, fell 1.4%. Economists were expecting a larger drop of 2%.
Investors will be turning their eyes to U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who will be on Capitol Hill to address the House Committee on Financial Services starting at 10 a.m. ET.
Small-cap stocks are down, with shares of EnerNOC Inc. (Nasdaq: ENOC) among the biggest losers.
The Boston-based clean energy company reported that it narrowed its fourth quarter of 2007 net loss to $9 million, or $0.48 per share, compared with a net loss of $4.1 million, or $1.07 per share, a year earlier. However, analysts were calling for a net loss of $0.30 per share.
EnerNOC saw its revenue jump an astounding 234%.
Dycom Industries, Inc. (NYSE: DY), which provides contracting services, is also seeing its stock decline on news that it swung to a fiscal second-quarter loss of $3.23 million, compared with a profit of $5.59 million a year earlier.
