The Wall Street Journal-20080119-Bears Maul Wausau Paper- Skyworks Up 16-
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Bears Maul Wausau Paper; Skyworks Up 16%
It was a different day, same tune, for small-capitalization stocks as recession and corporate profit fears drove down holdings across the board.
While the January swoon has bit into companies both large and small, small caps have taken an even larger brunt of the punishment for most of the past year. While the larger indexes are pushing 15% declines from their 2007 peaks, the Russell 2000 index of small capitalization has now officially dropped into bear-market territory.
On Friday, the Russell 2000 fell 7.41 points, or 1.09%, to 673.16, 21% below its record close of 855.77 on July 13. The traditional definition of a bear market is a drop of 20% from a peak.
The Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 shed 2.77, or 0.78% Friday, to 350.60, also down 21% from its peak.
For the week, the Russell fell 31.49, or 4.5%, while the SmallCap 600 dropped 13.94, or 3.8%.
Materials stocks were among the largest decliners. Wausau Paper fell 51 cents, or 7%, to $7.24, and RTI International Metals dropped 2.72, or 5%, to 51.14, both on the New York Stock Exchange.
Financials, possibly the biggest decliners for several months, fell again. Among them were Flagstar Bancorp, off 33 cents, or 6%, at 5.40, and Delphi Financial, down 1.77, or 5.5%, at 30.44, both on the NYSE.
Despite a mostly downtrodden market, some small technology stocks rose Friday following earnings reports that beat Wall Street forecasts from large-caps International Business Machines Corp. and Xilinx. Wireless semiconductor maker Skyworks Solutions rose 1.16, or 16%, to 8.22 after it posted higher first-quarter earnings and forecast an adjusted second-quarter profit above analysts' expectations.
In what has been a relatively busy week for small-cap acquisitions, Performance Food Group climbed 7.64, or 32%, to 31.83, after an affiliate of Blackstone Group and Wellspring Capital Management agreed to buy the food distributor for about $1.3 billion.
The year's first initial public offering received a lukewarm reception. Energy company Williams Pipeline Partners LP finished the day unchanged at $20.
