New Life for the Undead of the Market

Editor's note: Jon D. Markman writes a weekly column for CNBC on MSN Money that is republished here on TheStreet.com. He's also a regular contributor to RealMoney, TheStreet.com's subscription site. If you'd like to see all of Jon Markman's RealMoney commentary, click here for information about a free trial.

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Like subterranean monsters awakened in a 1950s-era zombie movie, a remarkable number of somnambulant stocks have come to life in the past week. Whether it's the re-election of the president, the decline in oil prices or the spark of a strong jobs report, Night of the Living Dead: They Walk on Wall Street is now playing on a stock exchange near you.

Some of the moves in retail stocks last week were downright spooky.

• Department-store chain Saks(SKS Quote) basically hadn't moved in 10 years, other than a big blip in 1998. Then came the call to the undead. On Friday it jumped 12% in a single bound.
• How about struggling grocery chains Winn-Dixie Stores(WIN Quote) and Wild Oats(OATS Quote), both of which are down huge this year? They ate up 8% and 12% gains last week, with much of their movement coming on Friday.
• Sears(S Quote) zoomed 31% after being discounted about that much for the year.

The arousal was far-reaching. Of the more than 1,200 stocks with market capitalizations greater than $100 million that were down for the year going into last week, about one-third rose more than 5% in the five days of election week. Half of those rose more than 10%.