Russell 2000 Top Performers Since the Crash (ATSG, AXL, ARM, BZ, CKEC, CTIC, CNO, GPRE, HGSI, LZB, PIR, PWER, PMI, UIS, VNDA)

The bull market is officially one-year old now.  March 9, 2009 was the absolute low for the index levels.  VSInvestor.com has pulled many of biggest stock movers from the Russell 2000 Index.  Amazingly, we had to include stocks which up a whopping 800% just to get the list down to close to 40 stocks.  This shows many ten-baggers or 1,000% gains.

Some of the key stocks which showed gains in the ten-bagger category are Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATSG), American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AXL), ArvinMeritor Inc. (NYSE: ARM), Boise, Inc. (NYSE: BZ), Carmike Cinemas Inc. (NASDAQ: CKEC), Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC), Conseco Inc. (NYSE: CNO), Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRE), Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI), La-Z-Boy Inc. (NYSE: LZB), Pier 1 Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR), Power-One Inc. (NASDAQ: PWER), PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI), Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS), and Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: VNDA).

And those are just some….. Check out the gains off the table below from the Russell 2,000:

There were many others which could have been included.

JON C. OGG

Top Day Trader Alerts (CSCO, CNAM, NBG, FSLR, JSDA, DRYS, FEED, BWEN, FMD)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is trading up another 0.8% at $26.34 and challenging yesterday’s $26.36 52-week high.  At 8:26 AM EST we have seen over 900,000 shares trade hands ahead of the 11 AM announcement that will “forever change the internet.”

China Armco Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNAM) is down 4% at $9.05 on 15,000 shares as of 8:30 AM EST.  This stock has been all over the place since last week and has recently seen a high of $11.10.

National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) was not listed in our top ten analyst calls this morning but should have been.  Deutsche Bank has downgraded the Greek bank to Hold from Buy due to its finance woes due to the Greek situation.  At 8:25 AM EST we have shares down almost 3% at $4.22 on about 450,000 shares.  Average volume is now over 3 million shares versus what was not even a half-million as recently as November.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is still rather thin in volume but shares are down about 4% at $104.45 as of 8:25 AM EST.  The stock was downgraded to Underweight at JPMorgan.

Jones Soda Co. (NASDAQ: JSDA) didn’t catch someone peeing in the drink mix but you wouldn’t know it if you saw the stock.  At 8:28 the shares are down 40% at $0.50 on only about 24,000 shares after a $0.84 close yesterday.  The 52-week range is $0.40 to $1.53.  Reed’s and Jones Soda are merging or at least have a letter of intent to merge; JSDA shareholders will receive 0.17 of a share of REED and will receive cash of $0.10 per JSDA share.  Reed’s closed at $1.58 yesterday so the merger price there would be almost $0.37.  Jones’ CEO will depart the company.  This is actually a “takeunder’ if it is even allowed.

DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is trading down about 1% at $6.03 on 200,000 shares as of 8:32 AM EST.  This is after yesterday’s price/volume spike up on rumors which have all but been panned by market watchers as hearsay.

AgFeed Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: FEED) is trading up 17.5% at $5.30 on 281,773 shares as of 8:35 AM EST. The company posted record revenues and said production volumes increased by 66% in the company’s hog division and 56% in the animal nutrition division.  Total 2009 revenue was a record $173.2 million, an increase of over 20% from 2008.

Broadwind Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWEN) is up after JPMorgan started the stock with an Overweight rating and a $6.50 target.  Shares are up 3.7% at $5.30 on about 13,000 shares as of 8:35 AM EST.

First Marblehead Corp. (NYSE: FMD) is up 6% at $2.91 on about 15,000 shares as of 8:40 AM EST.  The OTS terminated a cease and desist order for its Union Federal unit which it is still evaluating alternatives.  This stock had originally indicated higher and above $3.00 after a $2.74 close.

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JON C. OGG