Whoa! These Stocks Stood the Market on Its Ear

Italy's bond sales scared investors, causing the markets to fall and putting the S&P 500 into negative territory for the year. With the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 5% year to date, and with two sessions remaining, it may just eke out a gain. So just because your stock strapped on a rocket pack and went higher, resist the urge to high-five everyone in the cubicles next to you. Smart investors won't celebrate until they know that upward leap was justified. Without a fundamental basis for the bounce, these stocks can quickly make the return trip down.

Is now the time to lock in profits, or is this just the first step toward even higher valuations down the road? Let's examine several stocks that just hit the afterburners, and see whether they're truly headed into orbit.

Source: Motley Fool CAPS.

The markets tumbled 140 points yesterday, or 1.1%, so stocks that went appreciably higher are pretty big deals.

When you're hot, you're hot
Snowmobile and ATV maker Arctic Cat wants to go it alone. It bought back the 33% stake Japanese parts maker Suzuki owned, which follows its announcement last year that it was also severing its engine supply relationship with them beginning with the 2014 model.

It certainly positions Arctic Cat better in the eyes of the enthusiast. No doubt Suzuki made some pretty awesome engines over the years (they've been partnered since the mid-1970s, and Suzuki has been a major shareholder since the 1980s), but after Polaris Industries (NYSE: PII) announced last year it was "realigning" operations and opening a plant in Mexico, A-Cat's decision to use its own engine facility in St. Cloud, Minn., gives it a jingoistic advantage if nothing else.

With additional competition from Honda Motors (NYSE: HMC), the "made in America" label will also let it benefit from currency fluctuations and perhaps save on costs.

Although only somewhat more than half of the CAPS All-Stars rating Arctic Cat think it will outperform the broad indexes, two-thirds of the broad community think it can leave tracks on the market's returns. Tell us in the comments section below whether you think A-Cat will generate an avalanche of profits, and add the stock to the Fool's free portfolio tracker.

Call off the dogs
There was no specific news driving Antares Pharma's stock higher yesterday, though a positive article appeared on SeekingAlpha touting its contraceptive gel NestraGel, which the author believes has a good chance of getting approved within five years.

Antares was rocked two weeks ago by BioSante Pharmaceutical's (Nasdaq: BPAX) announcement that LibiGel, a topical cream to help with female sexual dysfunction, did no better than a placebo in raising the libido of women. Since BioSante uses a gel provided by Antares, both stocks dropped in trading after the news.

But Antares was moving higher already based on news Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) hadn't been scared off by the developments and willingly signed on to license one of its drug delivery technologies.

Earlier this year I thought the LibiGel connection would be enough to take Antares higher and rated it to outperform the markets. Even though that balloon popped, I haven't changed my opinion that there are enough other levels to pull here and am maintaining my outperform recommendation. But you can let us know on the Antares Pharma CAPS page whether you think the hurdle is set too high for it to make it over even with a major pharmaceutical signing on.

A grid pattern
It was pixie dust that also drove up the shares of demand-response aggregator EnerNOC yesterday, but it's also seeing positive developments that have led analysts at Piper Jaffray to initiate coverage of the stock with an "overweight" rating. Apparently it believes it will be able to get out from under the weight of the running dispute with electric-grid operator PJM over alleged double payments EnerNOC received.

EnerNOC also recently announced it was buying a provider of wireless technology solutions for energy management and demand response.

Like industry peer Comverge, the demand-response aggregator allows consumers and businesses to reduce their electrical consumption during peak demand periods by remotely cutting back on the electricity coming into their homes and businesses. In return, utilities and grid operators pay them for lowering overall grid demand.

Add EnerNOC to the Fool's free portfolio tracker if you'd like to see whether it can continue dialing up new growth opportunities in the future.

Going into orbit
These three companies may have divergent futures despite their short-term bounce, so check out for free two companies The Motley Fool thinks have a can't-fail future. Hurry, though, because the free look is available for a limited time only.