Momentum Stocks Screener
| # | Ticker | Company | Sector | Momentum Score | Chg | Week Signal* | 1M %† | 6M %† | RSI(14)† | vs 50DMA† | Vol Trend | Trend | Catalyst | Conf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MSFT | Microsoft Corp. | Technology | 95 | — carried | No new catalyst | +6% | +48% | 68 | +10% | Confirming | STRONG | EARNINGS | High |
| 2 | AMZN | Amazon.com Inc. | Technology | 94 | — carried | Topped $3T cap (Aug 3) | +8% | +38% | 70 | +11% | Confirming | STRONG | EARNINGS | High |
| 3 | TEAM | Atlassian Corp. | Technology | 93 | NEW | +29 to +30% (Aug 7) | +31% | +34% | 81 | +26% | Breakout vol | STRONG | EARNINGS | Med |
| 4 | NVDA | NVIDIA Corp. | Semiconductors | 92 | re-entry | +10%+ (week) | +4% | +22% | 64 | +7% | Confirming | STRONG | THEME | High |
| 5 | MCHP | Microchip Technology | Semiconductors | 90 | NEW | +14% (Aug 6, rev +38% YoY) | +17% | +29% | 73 | +15% | Breakout vol | STRONG | EARNINGS | High |
| 6 | TWLO | Twilio Inc. | Technology | 88 | NEW | +17% premkt (Aug 7) | +19% | +26% | 76 | +16% | Breakout vol | STRONG | EARNINGS | Med |
| 7 | PAYC | Paycom Software | Technology | 86 | NEW | +15% premkt (Aug 6) | +16% | +20% | 74 | +14% | Breakout vol | STRONG | EARNINGS | Med |
| 8 | LRCX | Lam Research Corp. | Semiconductors | 85 | — carried | Sector +7% tailwind | +9% | +52% | 70 | +12% | Confirming | STRONG | EARNINGS | High |
| 9 | U | Unity Software | Technology | 83 | NEW | +13.3% (Aug 6, Q2 beat) | +15% | +18% | 72 | +13% | Breakout vol | UPTREND | EARNINGS | High |
| 10 | MPWR | Monolithic Power Systems | Semiconductors | 82 | — carried | Sector +7% tailwind | +8% | +35% | 67 | +8% | Confirming | STRONG | EARNINGS | High |
| 11 | AKAM | Akamai Technologies | Technology | 80 | NEW | +8% (Aug 7, Q2 beat) | +10% | +14% | 66 | +8% | Confirming | UPTREND | EARNINGS | High |
| 12 | HTZ | Hertz Global Holdings | Cons. Discret. | 78 | NEW | +11.5% (Aug 6, Q2 beat) | +13% | +9% | 69 | +11% | Breakout vol | UPTREND | EARNINGS | High |
| 13 | ABNB | Airbnb Inc. | Cons. Discret. | 76 | NEW | +7% (Aug 6, EPS beat) | +9% | +12% | 64 | +7% | Confirming | UPTREND | EARNINGS | High |
| 14 | EME | EMCOR Group | Industrials | 75 | — carried | No new catalyst | +14% | +26% | 71 | +11% | Confirming | UPTREND | EARNINGS | High |
| 15 | TROW | T. Rowe Price Group | Financials | 73 | +1 AUM | Record index levels | +6% | +13% | 63 | +5% | Confirming | UPTREND | ROTATION | High |
| 16 | MANH | Manhattan Associates | Technology | 71 | -2 extended | No new catalyst | +18% | +36% | 79 | +17% | Cooling | UPTREND | EARNINGS | Med |
| 17 | SOXX | Semiconductor Complex (ref.) | Semiconductors | 68 | +8 recovering | +7% (week) | -6% | +14% | 52 | -3% | Recovering | PULLBACK | THEME | Low |
| 18 | PBF | PBF Energy Inc. | Energy | 62 | -24 sector | Energy weakest sector | -9% | +38% | 44 | -7% | Distribution | PULLBACK | ROTATION | Med |
| 19 | META | Meta Platforms | Comm. Services | 58 | — carried | No new catalyst | -7% | +10% | 43 | -7% | Stabilizing | PULLBACK | THEME | Med |
| 20 | AAPL | Apple Inc. | Tech Hardware | 57 | — carried | No new catalyst | -5% | +13% | 45 | -5% | Stabilizing | PULLBACK | THEME | Med |
| 21 | UWMC | UWM Holdings | Financials | 42 | BROKEN | -25% (Aug 6, miss + div cut) | -27% | -31% | 21 | -24% | Heavy distrib. | BROKEN | EARNINGS | Low |
Top 3 Momentum Picks — Trend Strength × Confirmed Catalyst × Sector Confirmation
Sector Momentum Heat — Week-over-Week Shift
| Sector | Momentum Direction | Evidence, 3–7 August |
|---|---|---|
| Software / SaaS | ACCELERATING | Four independent beats in one week: Atlassian +29 to +30%, Twilio +17% with full-year growth guidance raised to 18–18.5% from 14–15%, Paycom +15%, Unity +13.3%, Akamai +8%. Lower expected rates lift long-duration software valuations mechanically, and this group had the earnings to justify the flow. |
| Semiconductors | REVERSAL | The complex rose more than 7% after closing July with its worst month in fifteen-plus years; Nvidia +10%+, Microchip +14% on its own print. The qualifier that keeps conviction measured: the chip index had fallen roughly 15% since 1 July and many names remain down 40–50% year to date. |
| Mega-Cap Cloud | HOLDING | Amazon topped a $3 trillion market cap for the first time on 3 August during a record Dow close, then eased 2% on Tuesday after Bezos filed to sell roughly $4B of stock. Microsoft’s Azure-driven trend carried forward without a fresh catalyst this period. |
| Precious Metals | BUILDING | Gold rallied four straight sessions to a seven-week high, posted its biggest one-day gain since February midweek, and settled near $4,399.70, up 2.33% on Friday. Miners were the top-performing industry group of the week. |
| Travel / Consumer Services | EMERGING | Hertz +11.5% and Airbnb +7% on Q2 beats — genuine company results, but without the same-week sector-wide confirmation that software and semiconductors carry. |
| Refining / Energy | INVERTED | The sharpest reversal in the screen. Energy went from the prior run’s accelerating leader to the week’s weakest S&P sector, down over 2%, as crude fell on White House signals of a possible Iran agreement to increase Strait of Hormuz traffic. Chevron −5%, independent producers −7 to −8%. No deal has been announced — the move rests on an expectation. |
| Mortgage / Housing Finance | BROKEN | UWM Holdings fell nearly 25% on an earnings miss and a suspended quarterly dividend — a reminder that a falling rate path does not rescue every rate-sensitive business. |
| Mega-Cap AI Capex | UNRESOLVED | Meta and Apple produced no new company catalyst this period; both remain in pullback territory from the prior run’s post-earnings declines. The revenue-legibility question that drove those moves has not been re-tested and will not be until the next print. |
Breakout / Breakdown Watch
Change Log — 3–7 August 2026, versus the prior run of 27–31 July
Regime shift: The prior run’s organising rule was revenue-legible AI capex versus capex without a meter. That rule was not disproved this week — it simply was not tested, because no hyperscaler reported. What replaced it as the dominant driver is duration. The economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, September hike odds fell from 55% to 44%, and the assets that rallied hardest were the longest-duration ones. The earnings picture did not change; the discount rate did.
New entries (8): TEAM (+29 to +30%, FQ4 beat) · TWLO (+17% premarket, full-year growth guide raised to 18–18.5%) · PAYC (+15% premarket, Q2 beat and raised outlook) · MCHP (+14%, revenue +38% YoY, guidance above consensus) · U (+13.3%, Q2 beat) · HTZ (+11.5%, Q2 beat) · AKAM (+8%, Q2 beat) · ABNB (+7%, EPS $1.37 versus $1.25). NVDA re-enters the individual table on a verified +10%+ weekly move after being tracked only at sector level last run.
Major downgrade — energy: PBF drops from STRONG UPTREND to PULLBACK. Last run the refining cohort traded at or near all-time highs on record crack spreads; this week energy was the weakest S&P sector as crude fell on Iran-deal speculation. No company-level deterioration occurred — this is entirely a sector-input downgrade, which is also why it could reverse quickly.
New break (1): UWMC enters directly into BROKEN on a roughly 25% decline driven by an earnings miss and a suspended dividend.
Exited: GDDY and COIN both broke trend in the prior run and have now completed the exit protocol — removed from the ranked table rather than carried as permanent broken rows. A broken trend leaves the screen; it does not accumulate at the bottom of it.
Carried without new catalyst: MSFT, AMZN, LRCX, MPWR, EME, MANH, TROW, META, AAPL. Amazon is the one worth naming: it topped a $3 trillion market cap for the first time on 3 August, then eased 2% on Tuesday after Bezos filed to sell roughly $4B of shares — a supply event, not a trend event, and treated as such here.
Next gate: Inflation data is by broad consensus the deciding input for September, and inflation remains at 3.5% while hiring contracts. Super Micro and Applied Materials report in the following week — the two direct tests of whether the semiconductor snapback has fundamental support or is purely positioning.
Exclusions — Did Not Pass Hard Filters
| Ticker | Reason excluded |
|---|---|
| GDDY · COIN | Broke trend in the prior run; exit protocol completed — removed from the screen rather than carried as permanent broken rows. |
| CVX | Roughly −5% as energy inverted to the weakest S&P sector; negative momentum, tracked at sector level only. |
| WEN | −2% after withdrawing its 2026 outlook despite beating on EPS and revenue. A guidance withdrawal is an automatic disqualification for this screen. |
| WPP | +24% on 5 August on an H1 beat, but like-for-like revenue still fell 4.7% — a turnaround bounce off a declining base, not a momentum trend. |
| FSLR · ENPH · RUN | Real policy catalyst in price floors and a 15% tariff on polysilicon products, but no verified individual percentage move available. Not ranked on an unverified figure. |
| Leveraged / inverse ETFs | Automatic disqualification per hard filter, covering single-stock and index leveraged products. |
Confidence Footnotes
* Week Signal — web-sourced, dated and event-labelled. Premarket quotes are marked premkt and are never presented as confirmed closes.
† 1M / 6M / RSI(14) / vs 50DMA — ESEN engine computations derived from exchange price history, not externally reported figures. They are directionally consistent with the verified catalysts cited but remain model outputs; confirm live values before relying on any threshold.
MCHP · U · HTZ · AKAM · ABNB · NVDA — High: catalysts independently verified with specific, dated figures.
TEAM · TWLO · PAYC — Med despite being the three largest moves. TEAM’s full-year guidance came in below consensus; TWLO and PAYC figures are premarket quotes. All three are fresh gaps without a consolidation week, so the protocol withholds High confidence by rule rather than by judgement.
PBF — Med, downgraded on sector input alone. Company fundamentals did not deteriorate; the crude tailwind reversed on speculation about an Iran agreement that has not been announced.
SOXX — Low, retained as a sector reference only. The +7% week is verified, but individual chip-name weekly figures remain inconsistent across sources and the complex is still well below its early-July level.
MSFT · AMZN · LRCX · MPWR · EME · MANH · TROW · META · AAPL — carried from the prior verified run without a new catalyst this period. Carried scores reflect trend persistence, not fresh confirmation.
Market Context
The economy lost jobs and momentum accelerated. The US economy shed 23,000 jobs in July against expectations near 86,000, with May and June revised down a combined 103,000 and the twelve-month hiring average falling to 34,000. Unemployment fell to 4.1% only because 264,000 people left the labour force, pushing participation to 61.4%, a five-year low. Markets read that as removing the Fed’s cover to tighten: September hike odds fell from 55% to 44% and money markets stopped pricing any 2026 hike before December.
The longest-duration assets responded hardest. The S&P 500 closed at a record 7,757.64, up 3.6% on the week, the Nasdaq gained 5.2%, and the semiconductor complex snapped back more than 7% after its worst month in over fifteen years. Software supplied the earnings to match, with Atlassian, Twilio, Paycom, Unity and Akamai all beating in the same week. Underneath, 88% of the S&P 500 has now reported with 86% beating EPS estimates, the highest rate since Q2 2021.
The inversion was in energy: from the prior run’s accelerating leader to the weakest sector, down over 2%, as crude fell on White House signals of a possible Iran agreement to increase Strait of Hormuz traffic, with no deal announced. Gold pushed above $4,400 with miners the top industry group. Inflation remains at 3.5%, and the next inflation print is the deciding input for September — the single event most capable of reversing every duration-driven position on this list at once.
What this run shows
This momentum screener ranks US equities on sustained multi-horizon price strength rather than a single week’s move. The ranking follows the momentum literature directly — Jegadeesh-Titman 12-2 month price momentum as the academic spine, combined with trend-quality structure (50/200-day moving average integrity and higher-low behaviour), RSI(14) positioning, volume character, and a catalyst check that separates an earnings-confirmed advance from a sector drift.
The week of 3–7 August produced a regime change worth stating plainly: the earnings picture did not change, the discount rate did. Atlassian (TEAM) delivered the largest single move at roughly +29 to +30% on a fiscal Q4 beat, though full-year growth guidance of 13% landed under the 13.4% consensus — which is exactly why it carries Med confidence rather than High. Microchip (MCHP) is the structurally cleaner setup at +14% on revenue of $1.48B, up 38% year over year, inside a semiconductor complex that rose more than 7% the same week. Nvidia (NVDA) gained over 10% with no company catalyst at all.
The change log records the sharpest reversal in the suite: PBF Energy falls from STRONG UPTREND to PULLBACK on sector input alone, with no company-level deterioration, while UWM Holdings enters directly into BROKEN. Relative strength readings age faster here than in any other ESEN screen. This is a systematic ranking built for research and shortlisting — a place to start further work, not a recommendation to act.
What does the ESEN momentum score measure?
It is a composite ranking of multi-horizon price strength, not a single return figure. The score blends 12-2 month price momentum, one-month and six-month returns, trend structure against the 50 and 200-day moving averages, RSI(14) positioning and volume character. A high score means strength that has persisted across several timeframes rather than one large week.
What is the difference between a STRONG UPTREND and an UPTREND rating?
STRONG UPTREND requires price above key moving averages with intact higher-low structure and confirming volume, usually alongside a verified catalyst. UPTREND describes the same direction with weaker confirmation, typically thinner volume or no same-week sector support. PULLBACK means the structure is still intact but price is retracing; BROKEN means a decisive break on distribution.
Why does a stock with a large weekly gain sometimes carry only Med confidence?
Because a fresh gap has not yet proven itself. Under this screen’s protocol, any new entry holds Med confidence until it survives one consolidation week. Premarket quotes and mixed guidance also cap confidence. Atlassian is the current example: the largest move in the screen, but full-year guidance below consensus keeps it at Med.
How does relative strength differ from raw return in this screen?
Raw return measures how much a stock rose. Relative strength measures how it moved against its sector and the broader market over the same window. A 10% gain in a sector that rose 12% is weak relative strength despite a positive return. The screen separates company-driven moves from sector drift for exactly this reason.
What does it mean when a name is downgraded on sector input alone?
It means nothing deteriorated at the company level, but the sector tailwind that supported the ranking has reversed. PBF Energy is the current case: no change in fundamentals, but energy went from the leading S&P sector to the weakest. These downgrades are also the fastest to reverse if the sector driver returns.
How often is this momentum screen updated?
The screen is rebuilt weekly, with each run compared against the previous one in the change log so that entries, exits and rating changes are visible rather than silent. Momentum data ages faster than any other screen in the ESEN suite, so the verification date is published alongside every run.
Methodology: Price-momentum framework — multi-horizon return stack, trend quality (50/200DMA structure, higher-low integrity), RSI(14) positioning, volume character (accumulation or distribution) and catalyst verification (EARNINGS / THEME / ROTATION / DEFENSIVE). Trend states: STRONG UPTREND / UPTREND / PULLBACK (above key support, structure intact) / BROKEN (decisive break on distribution). Broken trends complete an exit protocol and leave the screen rather than accumulating as permanent rows. New entries carry Med confidence until the first consolidation week holds. Return, RSI and DMA figures are ESEN engine computations; names without a verifiable individual figure are tracked at sector level rather than ranked on an estimate.
Regime assessment: 3–7 August 2026 — duration-driven momentum. July payrolls −23,000 cut September hike odds from 55% to 44%; long-duration software and semiconductors led, energy inverted from leader to laggard, gold and miners advanced. The rally’s dependence on a single macro variable is its principal fragility.
Data freshness: price, catalyst and regime data verified through the 7 August 2026 close; published 13 August 2026. Momentum data ages fastest of any screen in the suite — confirm live values before any action.
For informational and educational purposes only. This is a systematic data output, not investment advice. ESEN Analytics Systems is a research and analytics SaaS platform.