Weekly Stock Pop Ideas
Sidekick AI chat created on TrendSpider.
I typically post a chart of the day on my newsletter of a stock that looks like it has a chance to pop in the next week. Can you look through the S&P 500 large cap stocks and give me 3 ideas for this week?
I'll scan the S&P 500 for setups that actually have a statistical shot at a short-term pop — trend intact, price coiled near highs, and volume waking up.
Let me process the data
Let me call all the tools necessary
Let me process the data
Let me call all the tools necessary
SWK: high 104.395 → (104.395−103.89)/104.395 = 0.48%; vs 50-SMA 88.39 = +17.5%; week open 95.865 → +8.4%. WSM: high 252.99 → 0.48%; vs 50-SMA 224.64 = +12.1%; week open 234.275 → +7.5%. NUE: high 280.11 → 2.67%; vs 50-SMA 246.4 = +10.6%; week open 256.08 → +6.5%.
Ran the scan on the S&P 500, then filtered the survivors myself. Two things you should know before the names:
My first two scan attempts returned zero matches. The tight version (within 6% of 52-wk high + RSI 50–68 + relative volume >1.2) found nothing in the index. So I ran a broad trend filter (daily close > 50-day SMA + RSI(14) > 50), got ~200 names, and then pulled daily price/volume, earnings dates and analyst actions on the strongest ones to narrow it down.
Blunt caveat on your premise: a scan like this cannot find "stocks about to pop." It finds stocks that already popped and are still in uptrends. Every name below is a breakout-continuation bet, not a coiled spring — and all three are up 6–8% in the past week alone. If your newsletter framing is "quiet stock about to move," these don't fit. If it's "strength continuing," they do. Know which story you're telling.
The 3 ideas
| Ticker | Close (07 Aug) | % below 52wk high | RSI(14) | Rel. vol (20d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWK | 103.89 | 0.5% | 69.9 | 1.45 |
| WSM | 251.78 | 0.5% | 68.9 | 1.09 |
| NUE | 272.63 | 2.7% | 69.0 | 0.74 |
1. SWK — Stanley Black & Decker. The cleanest chart of the three: closed at 103.89 on a new 52-week high (104.395) with relative volume 1.45, the strongest volume confirmation in my finalist set. Q2 EPS $1.57 vs $1.22 est. and FY26 adj EPS guidance raised to $5.20–$5.80. Citigroup lifted its target to $107 on 31 Jul. Weakness: that $107 target is only ~3% above spot — the sell side sees almost no upside left, and price sits 17.5% above its 50-day average. Also note the beat was helped by tariff refunds while revenue missed ($3.961B vs $3.967B est.). This is a re-rating on cost items, not demand.
2. WSM — Williams-Sonoma. Closed 251.78, right at the 52-week high of 252.99, rel. vol 1.09, 12.1% over its 50-day. Piper Sandler initiated Overweight at $253 on 27 Jul; Keybanc raised to $250. Weakness: price has already caught every published target — Evercore's raise on 4 Aug only got to $240, below spot. No earnings in the next two weeks, so there's no scheduled catalyst; this one needs the tape to do the work.
3. NUE — Nucor. Least extended of the three relative to its own trend (10.6% over the 50-day) and still 2.7% under its 52-week high, so there's an actual breakout level left to break. Q2 EPS $4.84 vs $4.38 est., revenue $10.397B vs $10.14B est.; Barclays, BMO and Wells Fargo all raised targets to $295–$297 (~8–9% above spot) on 29 Jul. Weakness: rel. vol only 0.74 — the last few up days came on thin participation, which is the softest tell in this group.
Green = my three picks; grey = runners-up. Ideal zone is left-and-low: near highs without being overbought.
Runners-up and why they lost: PKG has the best analyst upside (JP Morgan $312, ~22% above spot) and the coolest RSI at 65.5, but rel. vol of 0.64 means nobody is showing up for the move. FAST is 0.12% off its high but sell-side is stuck at hold with targets at/below price. GRMN (RSI 77.9, +25% over its 50-day) and DGX (RSI 74.3) are simply too hot to publish as fresh ideas.
Avoid this week if you want a chart, not a coin flip: LITE reports 11 Aug and COHR reports 12 Aug. Both are up enormously (COHR +14.6% in one session), so those charts are pure earnings gambles.
Not trading advice — I can't make the call for you, and none of this measures the odds of the move actually happening. If you want that quantified, the Strategy Tester is the right tool; I can't backtest.
Want me to create alerts on SWK, WSM and NUE that fire when each one closes above its 52-week high on rising volume, save this S&P 500 momentum scanner and schedule it to email you results every Sunday evening, or build a tighter scan for genuinely coiled setups — quiet, contracting range near a 52-week high rather than already-extended movers?
