5 Stocks Setting Up to Break Out

WINDERMERE, Fla. (Stockpickr) -- U.S. stocks are off to a bullish start today, after tech king Apple (AAPL) reported stronger-than expected results on Tuesday after the market close. Shares of Apple are responding positively, with the stock up over 50 points to $615, or around 9% in early trading.

Market players are now awaiting a Federal Reserve policy announcement and chairman Ben Bernanke's new conference, which will occur later today. Traders are eager to hear if Bernanke will make any hints at the possibility of more quantitative easing or if he will hint that the Fed could be done with its easy money policy.

Some traders believe that Bernanke will have a hard time convincing market participants that we need QE3 since Apple's numbers were so strong. That said, it's possible that Apple is simply taking market share from its competitors and the overall economy is nowhere near as strong. Only time will tell as we move deeper into earnings season and see how a broad base of companies perform from an earnings standpoint.

>>5 Stocks Under $10 Poised to Spike Higher

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading up 84 points and the S&P 500 is moving higher by around 14 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was benefiting the most from Apple's monster quarter, with that index up a whopping 63 points.

This renewed strength in equities today could be signaling that the market wants to move significantly higher, especially if Mr. Market likes what Bernanke has to say. If that is indeed the case, then we're going to see a number of stocks and specific sectors trigger big-time breakouts and move notably higher.

Trading breakouts is not a new game on Wall Street. This strategy has been mastered by legendary traders such as William O'Neal, Stan Weinstein and Nicolas Darvas. These pros know that once a stock starts to break out above past resistance levels, and hold above those breakout prices, then it can easily trend significantly higher.

With that in mind, here's a look at five stocks that are setting up to break out and trade higher from current levels.

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