These Maverick Stocks Buck the Downtrend

It's not easy to find stocks that are hitting 52-week highs these days, but they do exist. For whatever reasons, these maverick issues have bucked the selling tide and are attracting steady buying interest. That's quite a feat, considering how few legitimate buyers are taking risks in this treacherous market environment.

These leadership issues cover a wide range of market corners but, not surprisingly, there are quite a few gold and silver stocks. After all, this is the only sector moving higher in a bonafide uptrend. It appears the rest of this elite group is responding to special situations, unique growth stories or small niches that are taking advantage of the current malaise.

Two caveats go along with today's analysis of these top-performing stocks. First, the majority of these issues should outperform the broad market after it stabilizes and starts to move higher. Second, a minority are direct plays on a contracting economy and could sell off at the same time, because it's likely that cash will rotate into more traditional growth plays.

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