This week’s trading ended on a high note with US stocks climbing significantly by the end of the week. With both the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve set to meet this week, focus will be shifted from the handful of major companies with scheduled earnings reports as traders await the news from the central banks. We’ll be looking for an upcoming pullback in the near-future as the market remains very overbought going into Monday’s open. The top performers from this trading week came from the healthcare and services sectors.
The stocks in this week’s Big Weekly Winners: Swing Trading with PowerRatings all earned PowerRatings of 8 or higher one week ago on July 20, 2012.
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Performance of 7/20/12 – 7/29/12 Trading Week
The Spectranetics Corporation (SPNC)
Jumping over 18% in Thursday’s trading, shares of The Spectranetics Corporation saw a large spike in price after releasing a strong Q2 report detailing double-digit revenue growth. SPNC retained those gains to close the week with a new 52-week high on Friday in very overbought territory.
- 7/20/12 Entry Price: 10.45 with a PowerRating of 8
- 7/29/12 Exit Price: 11.99
- Gain: 14.74%
Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC)
The healthcare sector has proven to be one of the top-performers so far this year, and Pharmacyclics Inc. has played its own part with steadily gaining share prices over the last several months as they develop new cancer drugs to battle leukemia. PCYC rallied throughout the end of the week and ended Friday’s trading by hitting new 14-day high readings of its 2-period RSI and securing a little less than a 10% gain for the week.
- 7/20/12 Entry Price: 49.99 with a PowerRating of 9
- 7/29/12 Exit Price: 54.84
- Gain: 9.70%
HMS Holdings Corp. (HMSY)
Benefiting from the recent Supreme Court decision on health-care legislation, HMS Holdings Corp. released a positive earnings report on Friday that just edged-out analyst expectations. HMSY jumped 8.8% on Friday after the release to end the week with a new 52-week high.
- 7/20/12 Entry Price: 31.61 with a PowerRating of 8
- 7/29/12 Exit Price: 34.35
- Gain: 8.67%
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Joshua Glasgall is Editor in Chief of Connors Research