Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on August 14, 2026
HHS, August 14: a halt, a $5.00 deal headline, and $4.99
HHS opened up 50% after news and held near that level into the close.
News via Stock News API
What happened
Draft for review. Not published.
Halt and the $5.00 deal
The deal news made the day. A halt at 8:25:00 froze HHS at $2.91. During it, headlines said the company would be bought for $5.00 a share. It reopened at 9:00:00 at $4.55, 56% higher.
It peaked at $4.99 at 9:02, then opened at $4.22.
The wall at $4.50
At 10:09 a seller showed size: a 34K-share offer at $4.50.
Stop It's 10:10. HHS is at $4.33. About 34,000 shares are offered at $4.50, an offer that appeared at 10:09. The high so far is $4.99. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 10:07 a.m. and stop at 10:10 a.m. ET for your call.
A 10:10 headline said a law firm was looking into whether the price was fair. HHS pushed to $4.50 at 10:11, a lower high. By 10:17 it was back to $4.35.
The bid at $4.27
From 3:41, a big bid sat at $4.27.
Stop It's 3:45. HHS is at $4.28. A large bid has been sitting at $4.27, just below the price, since 3:41. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 3:42 p.m. and stop at 3:45 p.m. ET for your call.
The bid was filled, not pulled: 48K shares traded at $4.27 in under 6 seconds. It dipped to $4.22 a few minutes later and closed at $4.28.
What to take from it: With a $5.00 deal price on the table, HHS topped at $4.99 and each later push stopped lower.
Replay HHS's day
It starts at 9:53 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:56 a.m. and asks what you would do. Or press Play on any moment in How it traded.
The details
How it traded, step by step
Gap and hold. It gapped up 50.2% to $4.22 at the open and held near or above it, trading at $4.28 at 4:00 p.m.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 a.m. | News (GlobeNewsWire): Star Equity Holdings Enters Into Merger Agreement to Acquire Harte Hanks | |
| 8:30 a.m. | News (Accesswire): Harte Hanks Enters Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Star Equity Holdings for $5.00 Per Share | |
| 9:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $2.81 | |
| 9:02 a.m. | Pre-market high, $4.99 | |
| 9:02 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $4.99 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $4.22, up 50.2% from the previous close | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $4.28, 14.2% below the high |
The shape's name comes from a fixed rule, not a judgement (how shapes are named). Halts are in the halt table below.
The day in numbers
- Previous close
- $2.81
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $4.22
- Gap at the open
- +50.2%
- Pre-market high
- $4.99 at 9:02 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $4.99 at 9:02 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $2.91
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $4.28
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +52.3%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $4.35 at 4:01 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 2.67 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 44,373
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- n/m
- Float
- 6.74 million shares, from filings as of August 14, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 7.42 million
- From news to the move: the first trade 20% above the previous close came 30 minutes after the latest news item before it (GlobeNewsWire, 8:30 a.m.).
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 1.43 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (53%), 262,962 in the first 30 minutes (10%), and 1.03 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (38%).
- In our recaps, this is the only day HHS met the small-cap rule.
On the day's lists: the pre-market gappers, gainers, intraday runners. It is here because it met the small-cap rule on the pre-market gappers: price $2 to $20, up 10% or more, relative volume 5× or more, float under 20 million shares, its high reached $1 or more and it started the day at $20 or under (the rule every page uses).
Halts (1)
| Halted | Resumed | Length | The 5 minutes into it | Reopened at, against the last trade | The 5 minutes after | Reason in the feed | Watch it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:25 a.m. | 9:00 a.m. | 35 min 0 s | $4.55, up 56.4% | up 2.9% | News pending |
Halt bands that day: the LULD plan's Amendment 18 rules (what that means, LULD calculator).
How we read the data, name a day's shape and pick the stocks: methodology.
Trade this day
Replay HHS on August 14, 2026 in Hindsight Markets: the real tape, the order book and the halts, on a clock you control, and see where your orders would have filled.