(Street Life is a regular feature that focuses on what's playing in the stock market.)

* ACT I: The Home Run Galleon Energy (TSX: GO.A) $31.10 Up 55.5 per cent (since March 8 oil discovery).

The Calgary oilpatch was abuzz over Galleon's major league discovery of light sweet oil that sent the company's shares skyrocketing. Galleon's discovery was near Puskwa, in one of the province's most intriguing exploration areas, the Peace River Arch. The three-year-old company has a 100-per-cent interest in 31 sections in the Peace River Arch area and says the discovery gives it the potential to eventually graduate to an intermediate-sized company. Galleon shares have tripled in the past year. CEO Steve Sugianto is no stranger to success in the 'patch. He was formerly vice-president of engineering and development behind another big success story, KeyWest Energy, which was sold in 2003.

* ACT II: The Bomb Vasogen Inc. (TSX: VAS) $2.43 Down 28.5 per cent (one-day move on clinical results).

There was good news and bad news in Vasogen's clinical results. The market, as it is prone to do, took the glass-half-empty view. Vasogen's Celacade technology, its lead product, failed to improve walking endurance in patients suffering from muscle pain from artery disease and the stock was sent reeling. On the upside, the company also said the results showed its Celacade technology reduced levels of C-reactine protein that is associated with cardiovascular disease. It's been a rough ride for Vasogen stockholders, who have watched shares in the Mississauga company plunge 65 per cent over the past eight months.

* ACT III: The Takeover Zenon Environmental Inc. (TSX: ZEN) $23.78 Up 53.4 per cent (one-day move on news).

A slumping share price made Zenon a prime takeover target and General Electric (NYSE:GE) bid $760 million Cdn or $24 a share for Canada's largest player in the water purification sector. Zenon shares zoomed to an all-time high of $27.48 last July, but had been in a tailspin over concerns about production issues. On the GE news, one-day volume in Zenon shares spiked to 9.9 million. Oakville-based Zenon was founded in 1980 by Andrew Benedek. The former professor of water chemistry at McMaster University in Hamilton is the current chairman and CEO and controls 6.19 million shares.

* ACT IV: The Retail Shocker Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) $134.90 US Up 15.4 per cent (three-day rally on earnings news).

No doubt you've read all about the tapped-out American consumer by now. According to some analysts and economists, the American shopper is ready to drop. But just hang on a sec. Before reading the American consumer his last rites, you might want to check out these numbers for Sears, the largest department store in the U.S. The owner of the Kmart and Sears, Roebuck & Co. chains beat the Street's earnings forecast by reporting a profit of $648 million US for the fourth quarter of '05 compared to $309 million US for the year-ago period. Revenue for the quarter was $16.1 billion. Judging by the soaring share price and escalating volume on the news, the market loved those results.

* ACT V: The Comeback Story Research In Motion Inc. (TSX:RIM) $100 Up 23.4 per cent (two-week rally since lawsuit settlement).

Getting that American gorilla off its back is certainly paying off in spades for RIM. In the two weeks after the Canadian company settled its lawsuit with NTP Inc. of Virginia for $612 million US, RIM's market cap has swelled by $3.5 billion Cdn as analysts fall back in love with the maker of the popular Blackberry wireless device. The stock spiked 16 per cent on the first day of trading after the news of the settlement and has continued its march to the $100 barrier. Analysts are predicting a surge in Blackberry subscribers with the cloud of a possible shutdown of services removed by the settlement. Meanwhile, shares in RIM's competitor, Palm Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM), have slumped by five per cent since the RIM settlement.

* ACT VI: The Street Beater Transat A.T.

(TSX:TRZ.B) $21.75 Up 35.9 per cent (since hitting a 52-week low on Nov. 1).

Maybe those analysts polled by Thomson Financial could use one of those sunny Transat vacation packages - if they're not all booked up, that is. Analysts were forecasting a loss for Transat of 14 cents per share for the quarter ended Jan. 31, but the Montreal-based travel firm turned the tables with a stunning profit of 13 cents per share ($5.2 million). The company, which lost $1.8 million or eight cents per share in the year-ago period, said it was able to offset high fuel costs with increased travel volume. Transat is a travel tour operator and owner of Air Transat and is also expanding operations with the $7.4-million acquisition of Thomas Cook Travel and is negotiating to buy a hotel chain.

* ACT VII: The Falling Star Home Capital Group (TSX:HCG) $31.51 Down 21 per cent (one-day drop on profit warning).

Shaken by a frenzied selloff, shareholders might take solace in looking at the more attractive long-term chart. Home Capital's five-year chart shows an approximate 1,000-per-cent increase, so the Toronto company's stock was certainly ripe for some sort of correction. Many shareholders flew the coop after Home Capital issued a profit warning, saying that first-quarter earnings would be below the 47-cent-per-share earnings of the fourth quarter of 2005 and more in line with the 30 cents per share it earned in the first quarter of '05. Desjardins Securities analyst Michael Goldberg maintained his buy rating and 12-month target of $48 despite the warning. Home Capital provides mortgage lending and credit-card issuing services.

* ACT VIII: The Penny Jackpot Hathor Exploration (TSXV:HAT) 99 cents Up 395 per cent (six-month return).

Stake your claim as a serious uranium exploration play and watch the market gobble up your stock. One day Hathor was a sleepy mining play trading 31,500 shares, but the next day it traded 11.7 million shares with the stock leaping 164 per cent on news that the Vancouver company had become a notable player in the red-hot uranium exploration market. Hathor said it was acquiring Roughrider Uranium Corp., a private Saskatchewan company with one million acres of uranium dispositions in the Athabasca region, known for its rich uranium deposits. Hathor was also buoyed by a uranium price that continued its rapid ascent, hitting $40 US per pound.

(Stock prices are based on results through March 17.)

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)