What happened Stock markets are selling off en masse again today -- but not all stocks. Defying the downturn, shares of fuel cell pioneer FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL) popped after the company reported better-than-expected sales this morning, and remain up 16.2% as of 12:30 p.m. EDT. Image source: Getty Images. So what So what sent FuelCell shares hying off in a direction different from where everyone else is going? In a word: Earnings. As the company announced this morning, earnings for the fiscal first quarter 2020 were even worse -- a $0.20-PER-SHARE loss -- than the $0.08-PER-SHARE loss that Wall Street analysts had predicted. Sales for the quarter, however, were $16.3 million, and thus a bit better than the $14.9 million that analysts were expecting. On a day like today, with investors grasping for any straw of "good" news they could get, that revenue beat apparently qualified. Now what But was FuelCell's news actually "good?" No and yes. On the one hand, FuelCell's $16.3 million in sales was down more than 8% from last year's first quarter (but sales were up sequentially from Q4). On the other hand, though, gross margins turned positive (20.2%) and operating costs fell by half from last year. As a result, the company's quarterly operating loss contracted by 80% to just $3.1 million. (Management explained away the net loss by noting that "the fair value of the liability associated with the warrants issued to the lenders under our credit agreement with Orion Energy Partners Investment Agent" subtracted from GAAP net profits.) With these numbers in hand, FuelCell CEO Jason Few was able to argue that FuelCell is now enjoying a "turnaround," despite the slide in year-over-year sales. He did not, however, offer any specific guidance on what to expect in the current quarter, or the current year. 10 stocks we like better than FuelCell EnergyWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and FuelCell Energy wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of December 1, 2019 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source