59 Stocks Returning 7% this Week

A bit of an uptick in terms of the number of names this week versus the past 2-3. I've moved the market capitalization in our "criteria" down to $1.75 Billion in this constantly shrinking market. At the pace we're going I might need to move it down to $1.25 Billion soon as company values are slashed across the board.

Criteria

1. Market capitalization $1.75B+
2. Average trading volume 100K+
3. Stock price $10+
4. Returns 7%+

Green names we own, blue names we have owned in the past or discussed in the blog. We sold Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) this week into the rally. Rohm and Haas (ROH) was a takeover bid by Dow Chemical (DOW). As we discussed in the weekly performance entry, most of our performance this week was not really from any of the hedges, but a very nice rebound in our long positions, especially of the commodity type - that can be seen below in the numerous green shaded names. 3 of our top 4 holdings are in this list, and the 4th (A-Power Generation Systems) outperformed those 3 (+29% this week after a ridiculous selloff), but is of a far smaller size than the threshold we use here. This is why I keep saying, I really don't want to sell off what we own despite the potential for further melt down because these stocks are showing great strength in a poor market, which means once the market mood even turns from "putrid" to "dour" they should really perform.

In the smaller cap names (not on the list because they are below the market cap threshold), the next best two performers after A-Power were the 2 pawn shop/cash advance firms we highlighted this week. I almost pulled the trigger on a 3rd pawn shop operator, First Cash Financial Services (FCFS) as a "catch up" play to the two that guided up this week, but of course it ran up nearly 8% Friday - so obviously I am not the only one noticing this trend. Unfortunately my staff of 1 (and 10 hamsters) did not do the homework in time to catch that lift.

From the non holdings Schering Plough (SGP) is catching my eye - it seems everyone is screaming about it is time to buy healthcare as we enter (enter?) a recession, and this was a former holding for us that did not work at the time. But it seems to have picked up some steam here of late. Qualcomm (QCOM) continues showing the type of strength we normally associate with the Apples (AAPL) of the world - the chart is really firming up with higher lows each of the past 5 sessions - will have to think seriously about this name since we like to this type of action in a shoddy market. Flowserve (FLS) is one of the few ways to play "water" and is a de facto infrastructure play as well - one of the few "industrials" I really like along with our holding Cummins Engine (CMI).

Some of the names in this week's top perfromer list that we discussed -

1. Continental Resources (CLR) [Jul 10: Bakken Shale Making More North Dakotans Rich - Continental Resources +20%]
   
2. Cleveland Cliffs (CLF) [Jul 9: Cleveland Cliffs Up 15% on Guidance and Starting a Dividend]
   
3. Sunpower (SPWR) [Jul 10: Well It's a Start - Sunpower to Build 2 US Solar Plants]
   
4. Embraer (ERJ) [Jul 8: Has Embraer Hit Bottom?]
   
5. Sociedad Quimica Y Minera de Chile (SQM) [Jul 11: Let's Talk About Sociedad Quimica Y Minera de Chile]
6. Comstock Resources (CRK) [Jul 9: Haynesville Natural Gas Plays Refuse to Sell Off]
   

Symbol	Company Name	% Price Change 1 Week
ROH	Rohm and Haas Co	65.8
APPX	APP Pharmaceuticals Ord Shs	34.5
HPC	Hercules Inc	29.6
CLR	Continental Resources Ord Shs	20.4
FITB	Fifth Third Banc Ord Shs	18.2
CLF	Cleveland Cliffs Ord Shs	16.9
FLS	Flowserve Corp	15.4
ANR	Alpha Natural Resources Inc	12.7
FFIV	F5 Networks Inc	12.3
GOLD	Randgold Resources ADR	12.1
CENX	Century Aluminum Co	11.8
SPWR	SunPower Corp	11.7
CF	CF Industries Holdings Inc	11.7
BCE	BCE INC	11.7
HUN	Huntsman Ord Shs	10.9
ERJ	Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica	10.9
WAB	Wabtec Corp	10.7
YHOO	Yahoo! Inc	10.4
MEE	Massey Energy Co	10.1
GDI	Gardner Denver Inc	10.0
FSLR	First Solar Inc	10.0
DSX	Diana Shipping Inc	9.9
EDU	New Oriental Education & Technology Group	9.8
QLGC	QLogic Corp	9.7
TX	Ternium SA	9.7
SFD	Smithfield Foods Inc	9.4
MASI	Masimo Corp	9.2
URS	URS Corp	9.2
BLUD	Immucor Inc	9.1
MYGN	Myriad Genetics Inc	9.1
ABX	BARRICK GOLD CORPORATION	9.1
LFC	China Life Insurance ADR	9.1
YGE	Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd	9.0
YZC	Yanzhou Coal Mining ADR	9.0
SQM	Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile ADR	8.8
BAK	Braskem ADR	8.7
BTM	Brasil Telecom ADR	8.7
BWP	Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP	8.6
FLO	Flowers Foods Inc	8.5
CRK	Comstock Resources Inc	8.5
OMI	Owens & Minor Ord Shs	8.4
GNK	Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd	8.4
ACH	Aluminum Corporation of China ADR	8.2
PKX	Posco Depository Receipt	8.1
LDK	LDK Solar Co Ltd	8.0
PCX	Patriot Coal Corp	7.9
CAG	ConAgra Foods Inc	7.9
ISRG	Intuitive Surgical Inc	7.9
BUD	Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc	7.8
PMTC	Parametric Technology Corp	7.6
SGP	Schering-Plough Ord Shs	7.5
LEAP	Leap Wireless Ord Shs	7.4
RAI	Reynolds American Inc	7.4
MMC	Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc	7.3
QCOM	Qualcomm Inc	7.3
SRCL	Stericycle Inc	7.2
HCBK	Hudson City Bancorp Inc	7.2
MOS	Mosaic Co	7.2
ITC	ITC Holdings Corp	7.1