Three Small-Cap Stocks That Made Big Gains Today

Investing
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Stocks recovered nicely today after experiencing one of the more brutal Thanksgiving weeks in recent memory. Record Black Friday retail sales and new debt crisis proposals coming out of Europe sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 300 points, or 2.59 percent, to 11,523.01. The Nasdaq had the biggest gains, jumping 3.52 percent to 2,527.34, while the S$P 500 jumped 2.92 percent to 1,192.55.

Several small-cap stocks significantly outpaced even those mighty gains. A whopping 46 stocks with market capitalizations of between $300 million and $2 billion saw double-digit gains on Monday. Three small-cap stocks surged more than 16 percent – and none of their gains had anything to do with Europe or booming Black Friday retail sales.

Today’s best performing small caps were:

  1. Commercial Metals Company (NYSE: CMC): This steel-scrap recycler’s shares jumped 23.84 percent today on news that holding company Icahn Enterprises LP (NYSE: IEP) had offered to buy the company for about $1.73 billion. The stock is now trading at $14.18 a share.
  2. OYO Geospace Corp. (Nasdaq: OYOG): Shares of the seismic equipment maker shot up 19 percent after the company said it received a $7.4 million order from Breckenridge Exploration Co. The stock closed at $88.21 per share – its highest mark since early August.
  3. Merge Healthcare Inc. (Nasdaq: MRGE): Sales of this small-cap stock were up 17.46 percent today after the company announced that it will launch a new image-sharing product called Merge Honeycomb early next year. The new cloud-based, image-sharing platform will allow its users to upload, view and share medical images from their mobile devices.
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