10 Stocks to Shake the Market

Some stocks are one-hit wonders, making a big splash when they first appear, then quickly fizzling into obscurity or oblivion. But for other stocks, that initial big move is only a preview for even bigger and better gains to come.

Today, we've compiled 10 stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month. We'll then pair that list with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. The higher each stock's rating, the greater CAPS members' faith in that company's ability to keep on beating the market.

With only two of the stocks carrying top ratings, let's see why the CAPS community thinks any of these might outperform the market.

A mighty temblor
I wouldn't call it smug satisfaction, but you've gotta admit that the Dendreon true believers might have a right to crow, "I told you so!"

The phase 3 results for Dendreon's cancer treatment Provenge showed that it successfully prolonged survival in patients. The drug takes a patient's blood cells, injects them with a bio-engineered protein for treating prostate tumors, and inserts them back into the body. As a result, the body's immune system goes on a search-and-destroy mission for cells containing the mutated protein. The news resulted in a tsunami of buying; shares surged more than 200% yesterday, before settling down to a still-towering 135% increase. Yet while the news is good, and the faith placed in the drug and the company by longtime investors vindicated, you can't exactly fault any investor who urged caution.

After all, we've been down this euphoric road before with Dendreon. Two years ago, the biotech got a favorable ruling from an FDA advisory panel, which also caused its stock to spike. Only a month later, though, the FDA voted against its own advisors, sending shares careening back down. Thus, investors had every reason to avoid irrational exuberance this time around. Dendreon's not the only drug developer to experience such disappointments, as Theravance and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) know only too well.

So unless you were the gambling kind, you probably missed out on yesterday's run-up. Still, there's plenty of opportunity left. The Fool's own Brian Orelli calculates that with one of the big risks out of the way, Dendreon and Provenge have a chance to capture a large share of the market for prostate cancer treatment. And though the stock has soared wildly so far, once the drug is on the market, it could continue to provide excellent returns for the company's shares.

Like fellow CAPS All-Star TSIF, who saw suspicious activity afoot ahead of the news release, zzlangerhans also read into management's move. However, this CAPS investor took the opposite tack, suggesting the possibility of a "bad data leak":

As in real life, I've been burned on CAPS by terminating long bets way too soon. I bought into Dendreon at a nice low in early March with the following comment:

"I'm looking for a rebound as investors find the memory of 2007's 500% gain too juicy to resist. Final data for IMPACT has been moved up to April of this year. Does yesterday's big drop signify a bad data leak? Hard to say, but I'll be out of the pick before the data is released if possible. If I'm caught in the red then I guess I'll just have to hold hard and pray on judgment day."

April came and only a weak rebound had set in, so I decided to take my 20 points and walk away. Unfortunately the stub suddenly decided to make that long awaited jump leaving me open-mouthed on the sidelines having missed another 60 points or so. Rather than take a conservative approach, I still can't leave Dendreon alone and now return for my fifth underperform pitch. If I get 20 points before D-day I'm out, otherwise I'm going to stand by my bad biotech post on Dendreon and walk into the fire.

Shake, rattle, and roll
It pays to start your own research on these market-shaking stocks 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.