SMALL STOCKS
Steak n Shake, RadioShack Lead Consumer Decline
By GEOFFREY ROGOW June 3, 2008; Page C6
With investors worried about May retail sales and a government payroll report both due out later in the week, consumer names drove small-capitalization stocks lower Monday.
Also damping consumer stocks, oil futures rose 0.3% to $127.76 a barrel.
"People need to see stability in the job market. If the labor market really starts to unravel, people will just pull their horns in," said Bill Strazzullo, chief market strategist for Bell Curve Trading.
Within the consumer space, declines Monday were led by
Steak n Shake, which fell 39 cents, or 5.8%, to $6.38 on the New York Stock Exchange.
RadioShack (NYSE), which sits at the intersection of consumers and technology, also closed lower, losing 55 cents, or 3.8%, to 14.10.
For the session, the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks fell 7.26 points, or 0.97%, to 741.02. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 declined 3.92 points, or 0.99%, to 391.39 after closing in positive territory for the first time this year Friday. The slide for both indexes Monday marked their first declines in five sessions.
Small-cap financials also sold off, weighed down by the afternoon ratings cut of three Wall Street giants by Standard & Poor's, as well as leadership changes for large-caps
Wachovia and
Washington Mutual.
"People were lulled into a sense that the issues for financials were over, and this reminds us it's still got a ways to play out," said Richard Parker, managing director for institutional equity trading at Stanford Group.
Included in the small-cap banking decliners Monday,
UCBH Holdings slid 59 cents, or 12%, to 4.29, while Boston Private Financial lost 67 cents, or 8%, to 7.76.
With oil ticking up and the weak economic reports, airline carriers were lower across the board. Leading the group down was United Airlines parent
UAL, which lost 66 cents, or 7.7%, to 7.88;
US Airways Group, down 20 cents, or 5.1%, to 3.76, and
Delta Air Lines, off 30 cents, or 4.9%, to 5.85.
As a result of news from the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology in Chicago this weekend, several drug companies moved higher Monday.
Avant Immunotherapeutics tacked on 3.97, or 28%, to 17.98, after the Needham, Mass., vaccine developer reported robust midstage results of its brain-cancer vaccine, CDX-110, on which it has teamed up with
Pfizer.
Meanwhile, an early-stage trial of an
Infinity Pharmaceuticals treatment showed a response in treating patients with a rare but deadly cancer of the stomach and intestines who were previously treated with therapies including Pfizer's Sutent and
Novartis's Gleevec. Infinity, of Cambridge, Mass., closed trading up 78 cents, or 11%, to 8.13.
In addition, Acorda Therapeutics rose 6.74, or 31%, to 28.30 after the Hawthorne, N.Y., biotechnology company said a second late-stage trial showed that its multiple-sclerosis drug improved mobility in some patients with the debilitating disease. Acorda plans to file for licensing to market the drug, being developed with
Elan, in the first quarter.
Abiomed jumped 2.32, or 16%, to 17.10 after the Danvers, Mass., medical-devices maker said the Food and Drug Administration approved its Impella 2.5 Cardiac Assist Device.
Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE) slid 80 cents, or 7.5%, to 9.85 after the Santa Monica, Calif., independent film producer and distributor posted a fiscal fourth-quarter profit shy of analysts' expectations.
Chinese maker of solar wafers
ReneSola declined 1.49, or 5.9%, to 23.59 on the NYSE. The company said it plans to sell nine million American depositary shares to pay for expansion projects. The company was also downgraded to underweight from equalweight by Morgan Stanley.
Unisys (NYSE) declined 24 cents, or 4.7%, to 4.82 after the Blue Bell, Pa., information technology services firm was cut to underperform from neutral at Merrill Lynch, according to theflyonthewall.com.
