Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq:INFN), Mesabi Trust (Nasdaq:MSB) and North American Galvanizing & Coatings Inc. (Nasdaq:NGA) are among the biggest percentage losers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Sanderson Farms Inc (Nasdaq:SAFM), Symmetry Medical Inc. (Nasdaq:SMA), Vocus Inc. (Nasdaq:VOCS), NL Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:NL), MutualFirst Financial Inc. (Nasdaq:MFSF) and Numerex Corp. (Nasdaq:NMRX).

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) remained a smidge lower into the midday, but well off the morning lows as gains in the technology arena spilled over into the broad market. Concerns about the economy, a moribund housing market and expiration jitters kept a lid on some buying interest, but the market was trying to spark a rally heading toward the afternoon. Today’s small-cap gainers are UAL Corp. (Nasdaq:UAUA), CIT (NYSE:CIT) and Ambac Financial Group (NYSE:AKT). Other Market Watch highlights today include:

• Light, sweet crude for November delivery is up $1.66 to $71.51 a barrel. On Thursday, it sank to a 14-month low on worries about a deep global recession obliterating fuel demand.
• BMO Capital's Andy Busch to SCI: "There is a serious need to educate the banking sector participants on the changes in the Treasury programs the Fed programs directed at easing the credit crunch." 
• Outside of the gold market, commodity stocks were doing well today, with coal, steel, gas utilities, oil exploration, gas storage and agriculture products all up. 
• On the downside, anything tied to housing was struggling, including home furnishing stocks and homebuilder shares. Bank stocks and financial shares were also lagging the general market. 
• The expiration of options on stocks today likely played a role in some of the market’s struggles as the directional bias into expiration is clearly toward lower prices. 

Small Cap Gainers:

• CIT (NYSE:CIT) loss widens; vendor finance write-down hurts. Shares of the finance company are soaring 47%.
• United Air’s parent UAL Corp. (Nasdaq:UAUA) is up 20% today, extending its rise from Thursday.
• Ambac Financial Group (NYSE:AKT) is soaring nearly 30% on news . . .

Mesabi Trust (NYSE:MSB), Lumber Liquidators, Inc. (NYSE:LL) and UFP Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:UFPT) were among the new 52-week highs established during Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations or values under $750 million.

TNS, Inc. (NYSE:TNS) was also among the 52-week small-cap highs.

Here are today's 52-week small-cap highs:

These are the biggest percentage losers in mid-session trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million: