3 Stocks Stopping the Presses

You saw the headlines. You know your stock price made a big move. But what does that portend for your investment's future?

By pairing the latest news with the collective wisdom of our 170,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS investing community, we might be able to discover whether your stock's latest exploits are a short-term hiccup -- or the start of a much bigger trend.

The following stocks have all made big moves over the past five days:

Source: finviz.com, Motley Fool CAPS.

Although shares of eMagin sunk 21% this week and the stock is off more than a third from recent highs, the OLED microdisplay maker recorded record sales and profits this quarter, and is winning contracts that should lead to healthy, long-term growth. What the market might not have liked is most of the benefits not starting to accrue for several years yet.

For example, shipments to ITT (NYSE: ITT) of night-vision goggles for the U.S. Army should start ramping up over the next year or so, but it won't be for some three years or so that the bulk of the potential revenues will be realized. Yet with contracts with various NATO countries for its technology, as well as with FLIR Systems (Nasdaq: FLIR), which uses eMagin's microdisplay technology in conjunction with its infrared cameras, there's a wealth of opportunity for it to grow.

I've rated the stock to outperform the market, believing as fixmdude does that eMagin's best-of-class technology will outweigh any pricing anomalies its stock may experience.

OLED is the future of display technology. eMagin has patented the best high resolution OLED microdisplays at better than HD resolutions with military grants, sales, and an already profitable company. Their OLED microdisplays are revolutionizing military equipment such as next generation thermal night-vision goggles, medical instrumentation, pilot gear, 3-D virtual imaging, and soldier situational awareness wearable computers.

What the frack is going on?
The ability to extract oil from shale deposits lays in a driller's ability to fracture the rock to allow the oil to flow. Yet the process has become steeped in controversy as critics claim the fluids used to do the "fracking" contaminate groundwater supplies.

Halliburton, Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI), and Flotek are all primary suppliers of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing and could see business crumble if Congress ever got around to limiting or even banning the procedure. Carbo Ceramics, a maker of ceramic beads injected into the fluids, which ends up propping open the fissures, would see business grind down.

Considering the exceptionally strong earnings results Flotek recorded last week, along with exceptionally high demand for January and February (signaling 2011 is going to be a very good year), investors need to keep an eye on the anti-fracking debate.

Yet you can sit on your hands for an awfully long time playing "woulda-shoulda-coulda," and CAPS members aren't in such games. They've indicated a strong preference for Flotek to keep outperforming the market, and 97% of the All-Stars rating the oil services specialist see it beating the Street in the future.

Add your opinion on how the fracking debate will unfold in the comments section below or on the Flotek CAPS page.

Tastes like chicken
With power now restored to the Fukushima nuclear reactor and the likelihood of an all-out disaster fading, it's beginning to look like it's not going to be a complete meltdown for the nuclear power industry. That probability helped restore uranium miners like Uranium Resources, Dennison Mines (NYSE: DNN), and much of the rest of the industrial metals and mining industry.

Not that siting a reactor is going to become any easier in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis. No one really wanted a nuclear power plant in their backyard to begin with. But Germany is going nuclear-free and industry critics everywhere have been emboldened. President Barack Obama has stood by the industry, though, seeing it as a key component of a greener, less fossil fuel-dependent energy future.

Like Warren Buffett, CAPS member SCmaverick96 sees lots of investment potential as a result of Japan's problems.

As dramatic as the nuclear problem is this would be a great stock to buy into while low. It is a dangerous energy but it very abundant and clean. It will bounce back eventually. Those who invest on Japan's problems will make some good cash in the long run.

Follow the uranium industry's meltdown and sudden resurrection by adding Uranium Resources to your watchlist.