Are These Stocks Ready to Take Off?

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Although the S&P 500 is off by 5 percent from its all-time high on May 22, the index is still up 12 percent for the year. Will the market resume its march to new highs?

The index recently broke below its 50-day moving average, which has served as a support level since December. In the past two days, however, it appears to be resuming its upward trend, with a gain of nearly 2 percent.

Investors betting on the market going higher may want to look at relative strength.

Relative strength is a quantitative measure that examines how a particular stock performs in relation to a group or industry. A company with high relative strength tends to outperform during bull markets.

A name making new 52-week highs, for example, may be seen as having above average "relative strength." The strategy assumes that these companies will continue to move higher as the market gains momentum.

People's United Financial and Charles Schwab, for example, are two of the stocks showing bullish patterns.

Below is a look at other companies showing high relative strength.

Relative Strength Stocks

Symbol
Company
52 Wk High
Price
PBCT People's United Financial 14.55 14.74
SCHW Charles Schwab 20.95 21.12
WLP WellPoint 80 80.21
USB U.S. Bancorp 36 36.04
MTB M&T Bank 107.41 107.31
HCBK Hudson City Bancorp 8.815 8.785
ZION Zions Bancorp 28.74 28.61
LIFE Life Technologies 74.48 74.06
CI Cigna Corporation 71.4 70.96
PNC PNC Financial Services 73.23 72.75
AET Aetna 62.9 62.435
HUM Humana 85.36 84.63
BBT BB&T Corp. 34.37 33.94
CMA Comerica 40.44 39.82
TMK Torchmark 65.88 64.72

—By CNBC's Pradip Sigdyal and Giovanny Moreano