Week's Winners, Losers: Best Buy Rocks, 1-800-Flowers Wilts

There were plenty of winners and losers this week, with the leading consumer electronics retailer surprising the market with a quarter of growth and a floral delivery specialist wilting in its sales performance.

Best Buy (BBY) -- Winner

Shares of the consumer electronics retailer posted their largest single-day gain in nearly two years after posting better-than-expected quarterly results. Analysts were holding out for a 7 percent year-over-year slide in sales and an even larger drop in profitability. Best Buy came through with year-over-year growth on both ends of the income statement.

Best Buy also announced that it would be expanding its presence as an Apple Watch retailer. It began selling Apple's (AAPL) smartwatch this summer at some of its stores, becoming the first national chain outside of Apple to stock the device. Best Buy will make it available at all of its stores by October.

Stop-Loss Orders -- Loser

Some financial advisers suggest that stock investors set up stop-loss orders, executing the automatic selling of a stock if it drops to a certain price. The purpose of the stop-loss is to limit downside during a market crash or correction, but those investors found out about the practice's shortcoming the hard way on Monday.

%VIRTUAL-WSSCourseInline-908%When the market plunged at the open, the "flash crash" sent many stocks lower, cashing out many worrywarts with stop-loss orders at the very bottom of the trading day. It's not a coincidence that so many stocks hit lows that were round numbers. Disney (DIS) at $90, Baidu (BIDU) at $100 and Apple at $92 were likely stop-loss orders that tossed out those investors just before all three stocks came roaring back to life.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) -- Winner

They're hiring at Chipotle. The fast-growing burrito roller announced Monday that it will host its first-ever National Career Day on Sept. 9. All of its restaurants will interview as many as 60 potential employees at each location from 8 a.m. until the restaurants open for lunch at 11 a.m. Interested job seekers can sign up for an interview slot at NationalCareerDay.com.

It may very well be little more than a publicity stunt, but announcing that it expects to add as many as 4,000 new employees to its existing workforce of 60,000 can't hurt the brand. Folks who associate Chipotle with tasty rice bowls and paying extra for guacamole can now view it as an active employer at a time when many chains are hesitant to take on new hires in this climate of escalating labor overhead.

1-800-Flowers.com (FLWS) -- Loser

Some bouquets don't always bloom. Shares of the floral arrangement delivery specialist slipped Thursday after it posted a quarterly loss and fell short of Wall Street's revenue forecasts. The guidance at 1-800-Flowers.com for the new fiscal year also finds its projected revenue falling short of where analysts were perched.

1-800-Flowers.com had bad news on a day when the markets were rallying, but obviously the rally wasn't enough. Let's see if it can send itself a "Get Well Soon" bouquet.

United Continental (UAL) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) -- Winners

The S&P 500 has two vacancies, and they will be filled by air carrier United Continental and video game giant Activision Blizzard. United has been flying high since merging with Continental in this climate of high fares and cheap jet fuel. Activision Blizzard is the PC and console gaming publisher behind the "World of Warcraft" and "Call of Duty" games.

Getting added to the S&P 500 is a pretty big deal because of the many index funds that track the popular index. They will have to buy chunks of both stocks in the coming days, likely pushing the two blue chips even higher.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns and recommends Activision Blizzard, Apple, Baidu, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Walt Disney. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Looking for a winner for your portfolio? Check out The Motley Fool's one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.