Wednesday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Small-cap stocks hovered above the broader market Wednesday for most of the day as upbeat news surfaced from a variety of sectors.

Cypress Bioscience (CYPB) was still riding high after surging late Tuesday on positive preliminary results from a late-stage trial of milnacipran for treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome. Shares nearly doubled at $16.37 after a CIBC World Markets analyst upped the stock to outperform. Forest Laboratories (FRX), which jointly announced these results with Cypress, lately added 2.2% to $53.

Semiconductor Advanced Analogic Technologies (AATI) also garnered an upgrade -- to buy from hold, at Needham & Co. -- after Tuesday's after-hours announcement of a favorable "initial determination" ruling from a patent-infringement case brought by Linear Technology (LLTC). After an extended-trading leap, AnalogicTech shares still climbed 16.5% higher to $9.33. Linear slid 3.6% to $35.79.

Cypress and Analogic both supported the Russell 2000, which enjoyed a few hours on the upswing before careening down to flat-line along with the rest of the market. The index was off 0.4% at 836.54.

Also among small-cap gainers today was Mesa Laboratories (MLAB). Shares vaulted 22.6% to $22.68 after the Colorado-based medical-equipment maker reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $1.4 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with 27 cents a share a year ago. Sales soared 53.6% to $5.3 million.

SenoRx (SENO), based in California, said the Food and Drug Administration cleared for commercialization its Multi-Lumen Radiation Balloon Applicator for brachytherapy in breast cancer patients. (Brachytherapy involves implanting small radioactive "seeds" that kill cancer cells.) Shares jumped 13.5%, or $1.08, to $9.08.