Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Micron Technology, Inc. (MU): These Three Surprising Stocks Have Led the S&P 500’s 2013 Rally

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), up 126%

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) might seem like an unlikely candidate for this list, given its somewhat pedestrian status as a memory-chip maker. But the cyclical industry has definitely been on a major upswing lately, as demand for memory for solid-state drives and mobile devices has given Micron new sources of potential revenue.

Still, the company is waiting on closing on its long-awaited deal with Japan’s Elpida Memory, which will vault Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) into the upper echelon of DRAM memory producers and give it valuable customer contacts to boost its memory sales for use in popular mobile devices. Only once that deal is complete will we see just how much growth it can produce for Micron going forward.

What’s next for the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX)?
Investors can only hope for second-half results that are as strong as what the market delivered during the first half. While the lightning-fast pace of such huge gains clearly isn’t sustainable over the long run, these three stocks have the potential for further share-price appreciation if their businesses can keep delivering the improvement that has helped boost their popularity so far in 2013.

The article These 3 Surprising Stocks Have Led the S&P 500’s 2013 Rally originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Dan Caplinger.

Fool contributor Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter: @DanCaplinger.
The Motley Fool recommends Netflix and owns shares of Microsoft and Netflix.

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