Top Rocket Stocks: China Medical

Updated from 7:01 a.m. EDT

New York City taxi drivers can test our wills at times. They drive extremely aggressively, often talk loudly on their cell phones and basically sometimes act as if you are not a client.

Early last week, when a taxi driver asked me at the end of the ride to pay the fare in a non-U.S. currency, I was shocked. Eventually, he took my money and was disgusted. Since then, the dollar has strengthened about 12%.

I guess the moral of the story is simple: Once everyone starts talking about a problem, it usually is no longer a problem.

I try to keep that in mind when putting together the Rocket Stock portfolio each week.

Look at the stock market this past week. Everyone was worried about issues with Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote), but during the height of the panic, Lehman came out and started buying back its own stock.

Or how about the most-recent economic data, which the economists and academics most certainly got dead wrong!

• Construction Spending: -0.4% (actual) vs. -0.6% (market expects)
• ISM Index: 49.5 (actual) vs. 48.5 (market expects)
• Factory Orders: 1.1% (actual) vs. -0.1% (market expects)
• ADP: +40,000 (actual) vs. -30,000 (market expects)
• Productivity: 2.6% (actual) vs. 2.5% (market expects)
• ISM Services: 51.7 (actual) vs. 51.0 (market expects)
• Initial Claims: 357,000 (actual) vs. 372,000 (market expects)
• Chain-Store Growth: 3% (actual)

I have written the weekly Rocket Stocks article for a year now, highlighting hundreds of different companies, all with near-term catalysts for that coming week. If you traded all of these ideas, you're up roughly 24% for the year, in a time when the major indices have sunk anywhere from 5% to 8%.

The selections for this week's Rocket Stock portfolio, like all the other week's ideas, are based on short-term snapbacks for the coming week.

But, before I talk about a few ideas, let's see how last week's picks performed.

• Exide(XIDE Quote): up 4.3% on the week. Exide reports earnings on Monday
• Thornburg Mortgage(TMA Quote): down 7.3% after the company delayed its earnings.
• Adobe(ADBE Quote): down 3.8%.
• First Solar(FSLR Quote): down 3% on the week .
• Sears(SHLD Quote): down 2% on the week.
• Goldman Sachs(GS Quote): down 4.3% on the week.
• Star Bulk Carriers(SBLK Quote): down 1% on the week.
• Eagle Bulk Shipping(EGLE Quote): flat on the week.
• UltraShort Oil & Gas ProShares(DUG Quote): up 3.4% on the week.
• Visa(V Quote): down 3% on the week.