3 Stocks Leading Recent Gains

 | Mar 17, 2022 01:11AM ET

Was it a dead cat bounce, or a white flag from the bears? It will be a few weeks yet before we can say, but one thing’s for sure, the market logged a big rally yesterday that was very much needed.

The S&P 500 index is on track to log its third red month in a row, something that hasn’t happened since August 2011, and Wall Street is on the ropes. A combination of rising interest rates, rising inflation, and fears of a third World War have combined to scare the pants off of investors. Many of the top-performing equities from the past two years have given up all their pandemic-driven gains, and are back trading at levels that suggest the once-in-a-lifetime boom in business never happened.

These growth stocks were already feeling the pain towards the back end of last year, but the contagion to other sectors and markets has been rapid since the calendars were turned over. A fresh COVID outbreak in China is going to do investors no favors either, and the US 10-year has been sent to its highest level since the summer of 2019.

But that’s not to say there isn’t some value to be had amongst all the bloodshed. Especially hard bounces on days like yesterday can signal that certain stocks are considered oversold by the smart and big money funds. Let’s take a look at three that might warrant closer consideration.

h2 1. American Airlines/h2

Shares of American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) jumped more than 9% yesterday, and over the past week have tacked on an impressive 21% compared to just 1% for the S&P 500 index. This is very much against the grain of what’s seen over the past year for example, but highlights the potential value that’s on offer with American Airlines right now.

Earlier this week, they provided one of Wall Street’s most treasured updates, a revenue guidance update with a surprise upside. Management had previously been forecasting Q1 revenues to be down -20% to -22% from 2019 levels, the current benchmark for performance as it ignores the wild volatility of the pandemic dominated quarters. But they surprised investors by saying they’re now expecting revenue to be only off by -17%, a solid improvement that bodes well for the stock’s continued recovery.