Rocket Stocks for the Week

By Jonas Elmerraji

BALTIMORE (TheStreet) -- Stocks opened higher Monday after a four-day losing streak that pushed the S&P 500 down 1.84%. But this week, with third-quarter earnings season on the horizon, investors are willing to be bullish once again.

Earnings season kicks off on Wednesday, when steel giant Alcoa(AA Quote) releases its quarterly earnings to the investment public. While expectations remain high going into earnings, the past couple of unimpressive investment weeks show that investors are still nervous about a rally that's seemingly come from nowhere. Solid numbers will be needed this quarter to sustain the trend.

That's not to say that all stocks tumbled last week. If you'd been following our weekly Rocket Stocks, you would have outperformed the S&P 500 by another 4.64% last week. Stockpickr's Rocket Stocks -- beaten-down stocks with near-term growth catalysts and long-term growth potential -- have done very well in the last couple of months.

In fact, this special class of stocks has outperformed the S&P 500 by 28.6% in the last 11 weeks alone. Before we get into stocks to watch this week, let's take a look at how we fared with last week's plays.

Our biggest gainer was pharmacy chain Walgreens(WAG Quote), which hit a 52-week high last week after our recommendation last Monday. The stock impressed investors with an excellent September sales release and prominent analyst upgrades, pushing the stock up 12.98% in the last five trading sessions.

Another stock that delivered market-beating gains was Constellation Brands(STZ Quote), an alcoholic beverage maker that rose 3.07% last week after it announced that it had quadrupled its net income for the third quarter. Infosys Technologies(INFY Quote) and Cisco(CSCO Quote) also beat the S&P 500 last week, bringing in 2.59% and 0.22%, respectively.