Small-Cap Winners & Losers: Palm

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) 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) 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) 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) lost 14.4% to $2.38.

Analyst downgrades further contributed to the ethanol selloff. Brookings, S.D.-based Verasun Energy (VSE Quote) dropped 12.6% to $4.66 on a Citigroup downgrade to sell. Westchester, Ill.'s Corn Products International (CPO Quote) gave up 10.3% to $41.40 on a BMO Capital Markets downgrade to market perform from outperform.