Today's 3 Best Stocks

The broad-based S&P 500 was treated to positive news early this morning, when weekly jobless claims figures pointed to a slight drop in week-over-week claims, to 366,000. Even with the previous week's rise, this would signal a moderately growing labor market.

This was, unfortunately, not enough to save the markets from a mid-day shellacking, which was brought upon by weak earnings from the technology sector. In fact, you'd struggle to find a tech winner anywhere near the best performers of the day within the S&P 500. A revenue shortfall from Akamai Technologies, a content-delivery management company, sent the tech sector into a tizzy. Akamai, which should be seeing big benefits from an increase in web traffic and data transfers, forecast revenue of $352 million to $362 million in the first quarter, which underwhelmed analysts looking for $370 million. Akamai wasn't alone, either, as Teredata, LSI, Micron Technology, and F5 Networks were all among the worst performers.

Given the tech crunch placed on the index from the get-go, the S&P 500 finished the day lower by 2.73 points (-0.18%), to close at 1,509.39.

Tech earnings may have failed to impress, but other sectors, and a field of not-so-common names, did their best to fill the gap.

Auto parts retailer O'Reilly Automotive was a standout, after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, and boosting its 2013 forecast. On the heels of 4.2% same-store sales growth, O'Reilly reported a 7% increase in sales, and an 8% increase in profits, as gross margin expanded 50 basis points. Looking ahead, O'Reilly is forecasting same-store sales growth of 3%-5% in 2013, with EPS of $5.57-$5.67, well ahead of the $5.44 that Wall Street expected. Considering that new car sales growth is expected to slow in 2013, this could play perfectly into the hands of auto parts retailers and consumers looking to extend the life of their current automobiles. Shares advanced 8% on the day.

Shareholders of for-profit educator Apollo Group had reason to celebrate, with shares rising just shy of 3% on the day. The reason was a much-better-than-expected report from peer DeVry , which sent its shares up 16.4%. Even though DeVry's revenue fell nearly 4%, EPS came in at $0.87, trouncing the $0.59 expected by Wall Street, signaling that the company's move into international markets is paying off. Investors hope that Apollo will soon be sharing in that same success with campuses located in Central and South America. However, consider me much less enthusiastic about Apollo's chances, as I'm keeping a healthy distance from this sector.

Finally, oil refiner Tesoro pulled an about-face, rising 2.7% on the day, despite missing Wall Street's profit expectations in the fourth quarter. For the quarter, Tesoro reported an adjusted profit of $1.34, as compared to the $1.46 the Street had expected. Investors seemed okay with ignoring the miss because of Tesoro's comments that it was able to use heavy crude oil discounts on the West Coast to its advantage. It noted that heavy California crude traded at an $11 per-barrel discount to Brent crude compared to just a $1 per-barrel discount last year. Investors appear pretty confident that these advantageous margins will continue to benefit Tesoro, at least in the interim.

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The article Today's 3 Best Stocks originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of F5 Networks. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Teredata and F5 Networks. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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