If you'd put the sell in May and go away rhyme into practice, you would have exited the stock market this year at a time when the S&P 500 had risen 9.2%. Not a bad gain since the start of 2013.

However, should you prefer a more fine-tuned approach to the wholesale departure (if anyone in reality does that), you may choose to study the biggest individual winners and losers for their potential to reverse. Of course, in isolation, a stock's being down or up a lot is only one thing -- it's not much more thorough than the idea of simply shutting out the lights when the fifth month of the year arrives.

Nobody knows where we're going, only from where we've come, so shorting the strong and buying the weak doesn't guarantee you anything. But if you're inclined to start here, the bountiful and the woeful are as follows:

For this year, the stocks that have risen the most so far on the S&P are a little more diverse than the market's weak names. The top advancers have a bit of a consumer-services

By George L. Perry

The worst of the deadlock between the House and the White House has passed, and there are even signs that a compromise may now be reached addressing long-run budget issues. We are in a better place politically than we were late last year, but still in no position to get complacent about near term economic prospects. Chances of renewed recession are low, but so are prospects for vigorous expansion.

For the past two years, the need for fiscal and monetary stimulus has been debated both in Washington and Wall Street. One thing that has been missing from these debates is the potential for longer run damage if the sluggish economy persists. When a recession is brief and the economy returns promptly to high rates of employment, the long-run costs are minimal. But when recovery is weak and joblessness persists for many workers, the long-run costs become meaningful. And they include worsening the long-run fiscal problems that concern everyone.

The economy’s economic