Wall Street staged a strong comeback following the U.S. midterm elections, with the S&P 500 joining other major indexes in a broad market rally. Investors welcomed the prospect of divided government, which may reduce the likelihood of sweeping policy changes. Meanwhile, declining oil prices helped ease inflation concerns, further improving market sentiment.

Encouragingly, the S&P 500's gains extended beyond technology stocks, as consumer discretionary, communication services and financial companies attracted buying interest. Resilient private-sector hiring also reinforced confidence in the economy. Historically, U.S. equities have performed well following midterm elections, providing grounds for a cautiously bullish market outlook.

Nevertheless, uncertainty surrounding interest rates, corporate earnings and artificial intelligence investments calls for a selective approach. In this environment, relative price strength remains an attractive investment strategy, allowing investors to focus on stocks demonstrating stronger performance than the broader market.

At this stage, investors would be wise to consider companies such as Repsol, S.A. (REPYY Quick QuoteREPYY - Free Report) , Bausch + Lomb (BLCO Quick QuoteBLCO - Free Report) , DMC Global (BOOM Quick QuoteBOOM - Free Report) , Universal Logistics Holdings (ULH Quick QuoteULH - Free Report) and Methanex (MEOH Quick QuoteMEOH - Free Report) .

Relative Price Strength Strategy

Investors generally gauge a stock’s potential returns by examining earnings growth and valuation multiples. At the same time, it’s essential to measure the performance of such a stock relative to its industry, peers, or an appropriate benchmark.

If you see that a stock is underperforming on fundamental factors, it would be prudent to move on and find a better alternative. However, those outperforming their respective sectors in terms of price should be selected because they stand a better chance of providing considerable returns.

Then again, it is imperative that you determine whether or not an investment has relevant upside potential when considering stocks with significant relative price strength. Stocks delivering better than the S&P 500 for 1 to 3 months, at least, and having solid fundamentals, indicate room for growth and are the best way to go about this strategy.

Finally, it is crucial to find out whether analysts are optimistic about the upcoming earnings of these companies. In order to do this, we have added positive estimate revisions for the current quarter’s (Q1) earnings to our screen. When a stock undergoes an upward revision, it leads to additional price gains.

Screening Parameters

Relative % Price change – 12 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 4 weeks greater than 0

Relative % Price change – 1 week greater than 0

(We have considered those stocks that have been outperforming the S&P 500 over the last 12 weeks, four weeks and one week.)

% Change (Q1) Est. over 4 Weeks greater than 0: Positive current-quarter estimate revisions over the last four weeks.

Zacks Rank equal to 1: Only Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks — that have returned more than 26% annually over the last 26 years and surpassed the S&P 500 in 23 of the last 26 years — can get through. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Current Price greater than or equal to $5 and Average 20-day Volume greater than or equal to 50,000: A minimum price of $5 is a good standard to screen low-priced stocks, while a high trading volume would imply adequate liquidity.

VGM Score less than or equal to B: Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B, when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy), offer the best upside potential.

Here are five of the 11 stocks that made it through the screen:

Repsol: Repsol is an integrated energy company engaged in oil and gas exploration, production, refining, trading, petrochemicals, fuel retailing and renewable power generation. The company’s expected EPS growth rate for three to five years is currently 21.3%, which compares favorably with the industry's growth rate of 15.9%. Repsol has a VGM Score of A.

Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Repsol’s 2026 earnings has moved up 39.9%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings indicates 198.4% growth. REPYY shares have gained 76.2% in a year.

Bausch + Lomb: Bausch + Lomb develops, manufactures and markets products used across eye care, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, surgical systems and devices, vitamin and mineral supplements, lens care products, prescription eye medications and other consumer eye health products. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BLCO’s 2026 earnings indicates 118.6% growth. Bausch + Lomb has a VGM Score of A.

BLCO beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the last four quarters. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 21.7%, on average. Bausch + Lomb shares have gained 32.6% in a year.

DMC Global: It operates three manufacturing businesses specializing in architectural building products, oilfield well-completion solutions and composite metals for industrial and transportation applications. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings of DMC Global indicates 200% growth. The company has a VGM Score of A.

BOOM has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 29.5%, on average. Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2026 bottom line has moved up from a loss of 21 cents per share to a profit of 35 cents. DMC Global’s shares have gone up 27.6% in a year.

Universal Logistics Holdings: Headquartered in Warren, MI, the company provides tailored transportation and logistics solutions across the United States, Mexico and Canada. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings of the company indicates 933.3% growth. ULH has a VGM Score of A.

Universal Logistics Holdings has a market capitalization of $862.8 million. ULH has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 68.6%, on average. Universal Logistics Holdings shares have gained 113.6% in a year.

Methanex: Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, it is the world’s largest supplier of methanol to North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America. Methanex has a market capitalization of around $5.4 billion. It has a VGM Score of A.

Notably, over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MEOH’s 2026 earnings has gone up 6.6%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings of Methanex indicates 376.9% growth. MEOH shares have gained 81.2% in a year.