Markets

There's got to be a checklist. Somewhere in the Google lair, there has to be a list of ways for Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to tick off Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). One by one, Big G is checking them off with sniper-rifle precision.

Investor frenzy for virtualization was enough to thrust VMware (NYSE: VMW) shares some 76% higher on their first day of trading last year. Parent EMC (NYSE: EMC) basked in the glow of its offspring's success.

Hey there, Fools. I've summoned our Motley Fool CAPS community once again to highlight a few of Tuesday's biggest winners among the stocks with a top rating of five stars.

As fundamentals-focused long-term investors, Fools never base an investment decision on the daily gyrations of the market. But the market's daily price movements can be useful when looking for new stock ideas for further research, or to keep tabs on watch-list stocks.

A lot can happen in a week.

For any measurable unit of time -- days, weeks, months, or whatever -- there are winners and losers in the market. A big movement in a stock price can indicate that something has materially changed within a company to radically alter its desirability as an investment.

At The Motley Fool, we poke plenty of fun at Wall Street analysts and their endless cycle of upgrades, downgrades, and "initiating coverage at neutral." So you might think we'd be the last people to give virtual ink to such "news." And we would be -- if that were all we were doing.

On Monday, March 10, shares of Bear Stearns declined 11% on rumors of a potential liquidity crisis. CEO Alan Schwartz maintained that "Bear Stearns' balance sheet, liquidity, and capital remain strong." Former CEO and current Bear board member Alan "Ace" Greenberg dismissed the liquidity rumors as "totally ridiculous." The stock closed that day at $62.30.

The Beijing Olympics may have ended, but China is still playing games. Online gaming pioneer Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA) came through with yet another robust quarter.

The past two days have been bad ones to be a steel investor.

Very bad days.

Late last year, shares of the world's top cell-phone maker, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), were soaring to new heights as its global market share topped a long-sought and breathtaking goal of 40%. But even as the Finnish powerhouse was dominating the globe, it was nearly falling off the map in one very important market -- the United States.

Even on the market's worst days, buyout news and other short-term forces can send individual stocks up by 10%, 25%, even 50%.

For example, despite its reliance on debt quality, shares of Ambac Financial (NYSE: ABK) gained nearly 42% in a single day last week, on news that bond insurer MBIA would reinsure more than $180 million in municipal bonds.

But beyond less-predictable events like that one are stocks with fundamentally compelling reasons for recent momentum. The trick is to find those stocks. That's where Motley Fool CAPS comes in.

"The end of the current international financial system." That's how Yu Yongding described the result if government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) were to fail.

The Dow closed under 11,000 last month, for the first time in two years. Gas hovers near $4 a gallon, jeopardizing the viability of airlines and automakers. The Fed is bailing out banks, mortgage lenders, and basically anyone that comes knocking on its door, hat in hand.