Nasdaq Small Caps Lead The Way; Retailer At Home Soars To New High

The bulls ruled the roost once again in afternoon trading Thursday as the Nasdaq composite and Russell 2000 small-cap index outperformed.

A solid earnings from Broadcom ( AVGO ) lifted semiconductor stocks, although gains in Broadcom faded badly after a 4.5% intraday pop. Shares were recently trading around 266.85, up 1%.

[ibd-display-video id=3009540 width=50 float=left autostart=true] The Nasdaq picked up 0.6%, and the Russell 200o rose 0.7%. The S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.4%. Volume on the NYSE and Nasdaq was tracking close to Wednesday's levels in the stock market today .

Outperformers in the Dow included Boeing ( BA ) and Nike ( NKE ), with gains of more than 1%. Nike is holding nicely above the 60 level after a recent breakout over a 57.35 cup-with-handle buy point.

Among the day's movers, retailer At Home Group ( HOME ) soared 18% to 29.10, an impressive performance after two straight heavy-volume declines. The company on Wednesday announced an offering of 5 million shares priced at 24.50.

The thinly-traded small cap has plenty of positive qualities, as evidenced by a Composite Rating of 97, but it's extended from a 25.97 entry. Shares vaulted 28% last week, helped by a 133% surge in quarterly profit and 25% rise in sales to $212.9 million.

Staying in the retail space, Conn's ( CONN ) gapped up out of a flat base with a 33 buy point, but similar to Broadcom, the small cap gave back early gains. A 20% intraday gain was shaved to 8% in late trading. Keep in mind that successful stock selection is about targeting fundamentally and technically healthy stocks. Conn's falls short on the fundamental side with five straight quarters of declining sales.

Ollie's Bargain Outlet [ticker symb=OLLI ]reported another quarter of double-digit earnings and sales growth, but it wasn't good enough as shares lost 3% to 49.45. Headed into earnings, Ollie's was extended 8.5% past a 47 buy point.

In the technology sector, fast-growing enterprise software name RingCentral (RNG) bounced nicely off its 50-day moving average after a recent breakout over a 43.10 buy point. Shares gained nearly 6% to 47.95.

Square [ticker symb=SQ ]was poised for its third straight gain after a visit to the 50-day line. Shares picked up 3% to 38.88. It's getting support for the first time after a breakout over a 28.07 buy point.

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