The Dow's Quiet, but These Stocks Are Partying

Beginning investors often assume that when the overall stock market is hovering near the flatline, there's nothing important going on in the business world. For instance, looking at this afternoon's levels for major market benchmarks, it looks as though many traders have given up and gone home for the weekend, with the Dow Jones Industrials (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) up just nine points as of 1:20 p.m. EDT. With none of the Dow's components making particularly abrupt moves, news concerning those blue chips isn't having much impact on share prices today.

But if you expand your view of the market, you'll find plenty of big movers and more interesting goings-on. OmniVision Technologies (NASDAQ: OVTI  ) is the big winner this afternoon, soaring more than 19% in the wake of last night's positive earnings report. OmniVision said its cost-reduction strategy had started to bear fruit, revealing a combination of favorable results for its most recent quarter and expectation-beating guidance for the current quarter. In the long run, OmniVision has to demonstrate its ability to keep its image-sensor chips in the most popular smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. So far, though, investors are content with the growth they've seen.

On the other side of the spectrum is Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW  ) , which has fallen 10% following its earnings report last night. Citing federal spending cuts and poor conditions in Europe, Palo Alto reported weaker-than-expected sales despite seeing year-over-year growth of 54%. Even worse, the company expects current-quarter revenue growth to slow to about 42% year over year, reflecting a much faster deceleration than the stock's valuation implied. Given the huge amount of competition in the data- and cyber-security industry, Palo Alto and its virtual firewalls aren't guaranteed to win out over the company's rivals.

Finally, Krispy Kreme (NYSE: KKD  ) delivered some sweet results for shareholders. Its stock has climbed 20% after it beat earnings expectations and boosted its full-year profit guidance by more than 10%. The donut-making comeback story has been impressive, and the increasing popularity of Krispy Kreme's coffee and other beverages will be vital to the company's future success. Given the stock's valuation, investors clearly believe in the company's growth story going forward.

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