5 High-Flying Stocks of Last Week That Defied Market Turmoil

Wall Street had a nightmare last week after an impressive bull run since Mar 23, which helped all three major stock indexes to exit the coronavirus-induced bear market. Concerns of a second surge in COVID-19 outbreak, the National Bureau of Economic Research or NBER's statement that the U.S. economy is in recession and the Fed's gloomy outlook on the recovery of a coronavirus-stricken economy resulted in severe market mayhem.

Growing uncertainty about a V-shaped recovery of the U.S. economy dented investors' confidence to a large extent. Market participants opted for safe-haven securities like U.S. government bonds, U.S. dollar and precious metals, especially the gold. Consequently, three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — tumbled 5.6%, 4.8%, and 2.3%. Despite severe volatility, a handful of stocks surged last week.

Concern Over Resurgence of Coronavirus Cases

Investors remain highly concerned about the second wave of coronavirus cases which could significantly delay the just-started reopening process of the economy. The seven-day average of new cases over the past two weeks is still rising in more than 20 states. States in the reopening process including Alabama, California, Florida, Texas and North Carolina reported a rise in daily new coronavirus cases.

Fed Projects a Gloomy Outlook

On Jun 9, after its two-day FOMC meeting, the Fed projected the U.S. GDP to decline by 6.5% in 2020 before recovering at 5% in 2021. Unemployment rate will stay at 9.3% by this year end, much higher than 3.5% recorded just before the outbreak of the deadly virus. The central bank has desired to maintain 0% interest rate and asset buyback programs till 2022 and expects to maintain this target "until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals.”

U.S. Economy in Recession

On Jun 8, the NBER stated that the U.S. economy has fallen in recession since mid-February, ending the historically longest 128 months of expansion. Moreover, the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD forecast that the global economy will shrink 5.2%, 3% and 6%, respectively, in 2020 due to the coronavirus-induced devastations. IMF said it may revise its its 2020 global growth forecast further down in next 1 to 2 months.

5 Top Stocks

Not all stocks succumbed to last week's market rout that ended the more than 10-week long rally. A few stocks with a favorable Zacks Rank popped last week. Investors reiterated faith in these companies due to their inherent business strength.

We have narrowed down our search to five such stocks that gained more than 5% last week and still have more upside left. Each of our picks carries either a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) with strong growth potential. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The chart below shows the price performance of our five picks in last week.

 

Tesla Inc. TSLA designs, develops, manufactures, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems in the United States, China, the Netherlands and Norway among other countries. The company operates in two segments, Automotive and Energy Generation and Storage. Tesla is making continued efforts to increase vehicle deliveries. The Zacks Rank #1 company has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The stock appreciated 5.6% last week.

Quidel Corp. QDEL develops, manufactures, and markets diagnostic testing solutions for applications primarily in infectious, cardiology and gastrointestinal diseases worldwide. These products provide accurate, rapid and cost-effective diagnostic information for acute and chronic conditions that affect women's health throughout the phases of their lives. The Zacks Rank #1 company has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The stock price jumped 11.8% last week.

Datadog Inc. DDOG provides monitoring and analytics platform for developers, information technology operations teams, and business users in the cloud in the United States and globally. Its SaaS data analytics platform integrates infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring and log management to provide real-time observability of clients technology stack. The Zacks Rank #2 company has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The stock price climbed 10.5% last week.

Beyond Meat Inc. BYND is engaged in the provision of revolutionary plant-based meats in the United States and internationally. It offers its products in plant-based platforms of beef, pork, and poultry in ready-to-cook and ready-to-heat formats under the Beyond Beef, Beyond Chicken, The Beyond Burger, Beyond Meat, Beyond Sausage, Eat What You Love and The Cookout Classic brands. The Zacks Rank #2 company has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The stock price rallied 8.4% last week.

DocuSign Inc. DOCU provides a cloud-based, e-signature software platform in the United States and internationally that enables businesses to digitally prepare, execute and act on agreements. It offers services to mortgage, non-profit, government, real estate, insurance, technology and healthcare industries. The Zacks Rank #2 company has expected earnings growth of 54.8% for the current year (ending January 2021). The stock price advanced 5.6% last week.

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Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Quidel Corporation (QDEL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
DocuSign Inc. (DOCU) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Beyond Meat, Inc. (BYND) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Datadog, Inc. (DDOG) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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