What's better than momentum? Mo' momentum. Let's take a closer look at five of this past week's biggest scorchers.

Company

Dec. 20

Weekly Gain

Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARIA)

$6.43

62%

Violin Memory (NYSE: VMEM)

$3.82

42%

Himax (HIMX 0.61%)

$13.44

23%

BlackBerry (BB 3.21%)

$7.22

19%

Gigamon (GIMO)

$29.05

14%

Source: Barron's.

Let's start with Ariad Pharmaceuticals. The biotech soared after the FDA cleared the return to market of its leukemia drug, Iclusig. Instances of blood clots led the regulatory agency to pull Iclusig off the market less than two months ago, but now Ariad can begin selling it again with a more restrictive label.

Violin Memory has lost a lot of ground this quarter, but it bounced back this past week after ousting its CEO and issuing a somewhat encouraging business update. The high-speed data storage specialist is still on track to introduce several new products early next year, targeting profitability by 2015.

Himax moved higher after getting an analyst nod. The supplier of display drivers and other chip solutions has been gaining steam this year as a wearable-computing play, and now its Northland Capital's top pick for 2014. Northland is increasing its price target from $12 to $15 on the prospects of Himax's role in Google Glass and other wearable applications.

BlackBerry was another winner despite posting horrendous quarterly results. It may have posted a brutal plunge in sales, a widening operating loss, and a huge inventory write-down, but the market was encouraged by its move to shift production to China's Foxconn. The cost-cutting move will likely free it from inventory exposure. BlackBerry also closed out the period with more than $3 billion in cash, giving it ample time to reinvent its way back to relevance.

Gigamon bounced back from the prior week's 13% slide, clawing its way back after D.A. Davidson analyst Mark Kelleher had initiated coverage of the developer of data traffic management software with an uninspiring "neutral" rating and $28 price target. This week's bounce was helped out by a partnership with Riverbed Technology that will allow two of their flagship products to work together to enhance their platforms. 

The press release announcing the partnership even included a suggested tweet:

#Riverbed and @gigamon partner to better enhance network and application performance management: rvbd.ly/1kT7cpa #RPM

It's a #SignOfTheTimes, it seems.