TSC Staff
Updated from 2:36 p.m. EDT with new stock prices
Small-cap stocks rose along with the major indices after the release of a positive retail sales report and a decline in crude prices. The Russell 2000 was up 0.24% at 719.61 and the S&P SmallCap 600 climbed 0.17% to 379.92. Shares of Palm (PALM Quote - Cramer on PALM - Stock Picks) rose 10.7% to $6.96. The Sunnyvale, Calif., provider of mobile computing solutions said it inked a deal with Verizon Wireless to sell its Centro phone. Starting Friday, the phone will be available for Verizon's 67 million wireless customers, Palm said. Meanwhile, Talbots (TLB Quote - Cramer on TLB - Stock Picks) continued climbing Thursday, a day after the retailer received a $50 million term-loan credit facility commitment, bringing its borrowing capacity to $215 million. The Hingham, Mass., company also reaffirmed its previous 2008 earnings outlook of 47 cents to 52 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for 41 cents a share. The stock surged 24.7% higher to $10.75 Thursday. On the losing side, National CineMedia (NCMI Quote - Cramer on NCMI - Stock Picks) fell 24.7% to $13.90 after Soleil downgraded the stock to hold from buy. On Wednesday, the Centennial, Colo., company, which sells advertising to movie theaters, forecast second-quarter revenue between $83 million and $86 million. The Street is looking for $100 million in revenue. News of a weak corn harvest and a call by presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain to end subsidies for the industry hurt ethanol stocks. Pacific Ethanol (PEIX Quote - Cramer on PEIX - Stock Picks) lost 14.4% to $2.38. Analyst downgrades further contributed to the ethanol selloff. Brookings, S.D.-based Verasun Energy (VSE Quote - Cramer on VSE - Stock Picks) dropped 12.6% to $4.66 on a Citigroup downgrade to sell. Westchester, Ill.'s Corn Products International (CPO Quote - Cramer on CPO - Stock Picks) gave up 10.3% to $41.40 on a BMO Capital Markets downgrade to market perform from outperform.
RSS
