The market giveth, and the market taketh away.

The woes dogging technology giant Applesent its stock hurtling to its lowest levels in a year on Friday, while suffering the added misfortune of losing its mantle as "world's most valuable company" to Exxon Mobil.

The company, which disappointed Wall Street with its earnings release this week, is being buffeted by doubts about its ability to compete with challenger Samsung. The reversal of fortune has been both quick and dramatic, with some surveys now showing Samsung's Galaxy smartphone now edging out the iPhone in market share.

(Read More: Apple's Revenue Falls Short, Shares Dive)

That pessimism has shaved more than $247 billion from the iPhone maker's market capitalization — forcing it to sacrifice its title to Exxon, which it first surpassed back in 2011. In Friday's dealings, the two giants of their respective industries were tussling for the coveted top spot.

More than 93 percent of the S&P 500 are trading above their moving 50-day moving average. Some of those companies, however, have significantly broken out from their trading range.

Price momentum is a relatively short-term occurrence, and as it starts to wane, the stocks that have deviated too far and fast from the average tend to revert back quickly.

The S&P 500, which has maintained a measured upside momentum since the beginning of the year, is barely up 5 percent from its 50-day moving average.

Case in point: Netflix. NFLX gained more than 42 percent on Thursday after it reported blockbuster fourth-quarter earnings. The most recent close of $146.86 is more than 61 percent away from its 50-day moving average of 91.03, making it the most widely deviated stock.

Similarly, Stryker, which traded within a 10 percent range throughout last year, is up another 16 percent year-to-date, trading more than 13 percent away from its 50-day moving average.

Here are some additional names that have seen new upside momentum in recent months.

Bulls continue to rule the stock market. A widespread rally on Wall Street this year, lifted nearly 37 percent of the S&P 500 components to a new 52-week high.

Major equity benchmarks like the Dow Transports, Russell 2000, and S&P MidCap 400 index, for example, are trading at new highs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 reached a new five-year high during Tuesday's session.

Investors tend to watch such levels in order to determine valuations and trends in a stock's performance.

So which are the stocks hitting the most 52-week highs in 2013? Coca Cola Enterprises and Plum Creek Timber lead the list, touching a new high in 12 of the last 14 trading sessions.

Some stocks that investors had given up for dead are finding new life in the current market rally.

Consider Research in Motion, which hit an 11-month high Friday. Shares are up 153 percent from their 52-week low of $6.22 back on Sept. 24.

In the past two weeks alone, RIMM is up 32 percent, making it the best 2-week period since November 23, when it rose 36 percent.

Similarly, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are up 65 percent and 80 percent from their lows last year.

Other previously struggling names such as JDSU, Micron Technology and Sprint also posted gains greater than 50 percent.

Here's a look at some of the stocks making a strong comeback.

The Dow Transportation Average settled at a new record high during Tuesday's trading session, after rising 15 percent in the past two months.

The average, which lagged other major indices in 2012, is now leading the gainers in 2013, up more than 6 percent, compared to a 3 percent increase for the S&P 500 index , the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq Composite Index.

Back in Oct. 17, CNBC's "By the Numbers" blog ran a story showing how the spread between the Dow industrial average and the Dow transports reached its widest point in six years. Historically, the spread between the two did not stay apart for long.

Delta Air Lines, Union Pacific, and FedEx are some of the names that have driven the average higher in the past two months.

As Wall Street braces for another earnings season, research firm Bespoke Investment Group has put together a list of companies that historically tend to beat earnings estimates.

Within the group, United Technology has the highest 'beat rate' at 96 percent, followed by Union Pacific, Johnson and Johnson and UnitedHealth with a rate of 91 percent.

Earnings per share and revenue estimates for the S&P 500 in Q4 of 2012 are expected to grow by 1.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Compared to a year ago, analysts predict consumer discretionary and financial names will show the largest EPS growth, while utilities are projected to lead the way in revenue.

Here is a look at some of the large-cap stocks set to report in the next two weeks.

Facebook may have had a rough go out of the gate, while Wall Street darling Apple got all the attention. But in the past four months, that pairing has been flipped on its head.

Rewind to September: Shares of Facebook touched an all-time low of $17.73, while Apple's stock closed near an all-time high of $674.97.

Since then, Facebook has rocketed nearly 70 percent compared to a 22-percent decline for Apple.

That meteoric rise has made Facebook one of the best-performing stocks in the Nasdaq 100. Apple, on the other hand, is the worst.

During Wednesday's trading session, Facebook closed above $30 a share for the first time in 6 months.

A rolling 60-day correlation between AAPL and FB is at its lowest level on record. In fact, the two stocks have a negative correlation, implying that as one stock rises the other one falls, and vice versa.

While not a fool-proof strategy, if the negative correlation persists, FB may actually work as a hedge for AAPL.

The CBOE Volatility Index plunged 39 percent this week, marking its worst percent drop in at least 26 years.

Similarly, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN (VXX), designed to track VIX futures, touched an all-time low of 27.5 during Friday's trading session.

The VIX, a measure of market risk and often referred to as the "investor fear gauge," fell below 14, its lowest level in three months, as the S&P 500 rose to its highest settle in 5 years.

(Read more: S&P Closes at Best Level Since Dec. 2007)

Despite the bullish sentiment, forward futures contracts for the VIX point to more volatile times ahead. In fact, three of the last four times the VIX fell over 25 percent in a week, the market posted a loss the following week.

While the stock market welcomed the temporary resolution of the fiscal cliff, it does not seem too concerned about the looming debt crisis, at least according to the VIX.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which is a popular measure of implied volatility of the S&P 500, is down nearly 37 percent in the past three days, its biggest decline since May 2010.

Since 1986, there have been only four instances when the VIX fell more than 30 percent in a three-day period.

In fact, prior to 2010, one would have to go back to the days following the 1987 stock-market crash to see such sharp losses.

"Dogs of the Dow" or "High Yield 10" is a popular investment strategy that recommends buying the Dow stocks with the 10 highest dividend yields at the beginning of the year.

The basic strategy suggests putting an equal amount of money into each of the 10 stocks; although there have been variations that include proportionate investments in the Dogs weighted by share price.

Another permutations suggest dropping the lowest priced, but highest yielding Dog out of concern that the there may be a reason why the yield is so high.

The strategy worked in the past two years. The 10 companies that made it to the list at the beginning of 2012 are up about 10 percent, adjusting for dividends, compared to a 7 percent increase for the index.

Ahead of 2013, here is a look at the highest yielding stocks in the Dow.

McDonald's and Hewlett-Packard are the new additions to the 2013's Dogs, replacing Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods, which is no longer a Dow component.