Oppenheimer shares 12 small-company stocks to buy while this unloved part of the market is beaten down and before it makes a comeback Summary List Placement Up until this week, it seemed like the stock market would continue enjoying a strong run this year with the SP 500 having hit all-time highs four times since the beginning of 2021. Most recently, the SP 500 closed above 4,185 for the first time on April 16. April 1 also marked a closing milestone for the index as it surpassed 4,000 points . The same can't be said of the Russell 2000. Even though small-caps are outperforming their larger counterparts on a year-to-date basis, they've failed to continue generating lofty gains these past couple of months as the Russell 2000's three-month return of 5.2% now lag the SP 500's performance of nearly 11% . However, the small-cap index still houses some appealing opportunities for investors given that the Russell 2000 is just taking a breather and can resume its powerful run, according to Ari Wald, the head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer Co. That's because technical analysis shows small caps failed to reach fresh highs in April as a result of a bull-market rotation rather than money becoming less concentrated at a major peak.