5 Rocket Stocks to Buy After the Storm

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Mother Nature just might have the best Halloween costume of all this week: the so-dubbed "Frankenstorm" that's ravaged the Eastern seaboard this week. The storm has had a real impact on markets, with Hurricane Sandy keeping U.S. stock and options markets closed until today.

It's the first time in 27 years that NYSE opted to board up its trading floor ahead of a storm. The last was Hurricane Gloria back in 1985.

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With markets open once again, we're focusing on five new names that should be able to benefit in spite of the storm: a new handful of Rocket Stocks.

For the uninitiated, "Rocket Stocks" are our list of companies with short-term gain catalysts and longer-term growth potential. To find them, I run a weekly quantitative screen that seeks out stocks with a combination of analyst upgrades and positive earnings surprises to identify rising analyst expectations, a bullish signal for stocks in any market. After all, where analysts' expectations are increasing, institutional cash often follows.

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In the last 174 weeks, our weekly list of five plays has outperformed the S&P 500 by 72.68%.

Without further ado, here's a look at this week's Rocket Stocks. BlackRock