10 Stocks to Shake the Market

In music they're called one-hit wonders, singers who belt out tunes but are never able to regain the magic of their big hit song. Think Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" or Brownsville Station's "Smokin' in the Boys Room." Monster hits never to be repeated.

We have seen similar one-hit wonders in stocks, too, like Pets.com or drkoop.com. Companies that burst on the scene -- many during the tech bubble heyday -- and never to live up to the promise they held.

Whole lotta shakin' going on
While nostalgia's fun, "10 Stocks to Shake the Market" isn't about finding stocks that can't repeat their success, it's about looking at those that have made big moves and are likely to continue doing so.

To do that, we're looking at 10 stocks that made some of the biggest moves up over the past month. We'll then pair that with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. Those that rate higher suggest the members believe they'll continue to move higher in the future and outperform the market.

In the first 20 months since we first began tracking the collective intelligence at CAPS in late 2006, the data shows that newly minted five-star stocks offer the best opportunities for investors, while the lowest-rated companies fared the worst. Four-star stocks outperformed the market by seven percentage points, and five-star stocks -- top honors in CAPS -- did even better.

With more than half of the stocks carrying a four-star or better rating, let's see why the CAPS community thinks even some of their lesser lights might outperform the market.

NovaGold Resources
Whew! That was close. Canadian gold miner NovaGold Resources shored up its financial situation with a $60 million private placement that also saved it from being tossed off the Toronto Stock Exchange. It's going to pay off its debt and start exploration and development activities again at its Galore Creek mine, which was shut in 2007 as costs spiraled upwards.

CAPS All-Star Melrune1figures that with this financial doubt behind it, NovaGold is a cheap entry into the gold sector: "Now that the bankruptcies risk have been removed (look at the private placement news), I believe this is now a very good value play to invest in the gold sector."

EXACT Sciences
Investors in EXACT Sciences are riding the acquisition wave higher after Sequenom (NASDAQ:SQNM) made an unsolicited offer of $41 million for the genomic test maker. Yet that's not sitting well with Sequenom investors who have bid shares down in the aftermath. CAPS member pick1998 thinks the offer sends a negative signal about Sequenom's own prospects.

Over-hyped for its DNA based diagnostics. An unsolicited acquisition of [EXACT Sciences] tells bad signs: 1) need an already marketed DNA based diagnostic tool to support its high valuation; 2) possible IP hole.

Shake, rattle, and roll
With these shaking the market this past month it pays to start your own research on them at Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made all from a stock's CAPS page.