Shares of home furnishings retailer Pier 1 Imports (PIR) traded sharply higher after the release of its fourth quarter earnings report. Shares gained over 16% and rose to a new 52-week high.

As we noted in our earnings preview, analysts were expecting to see the company post earnings of $0.32 per share. Excluding one time items, the company reported earnings in-line analyst estimates, and higher than the $0.29 that the company had forecast back in March.

We had a lot of big names trading up to new 52 week highs again today. The overall markets were pretty flat, with the DOW closing the day down 0.14%, the NASDAQ closing the day's trading up 0.04%, and the S&P ending the day a bit lower to finish today's trading down 0.28%.

Here are a few of the names that moved higher during the day to set new 52 week highs.

All three of the major indexes finished Tuesday in the red, but there were several big names that moved up to new 52-week highs in Tuesday's trading.

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG): The drugstore giant had a really good day on Wall Street after posting better than expected earnings in the morning before the market opened. The company posted earnings of 44 cents per share versus analyst estimates of 39 cents. The stock set a new 52-week high of $38.44 and closed the day up 9.2% at $37.35.

Oil stocks continue their impressive charge today with several of the big names trading up to hit new yearly highs. Oil has managed to trade up $0.70 to $72.89 and briefly was able to break through the $73 mark to hit a high on the day of $73.10.

According to a story today on CNNMoney.com a big reason for oil's recent surge can be attributed to large inflows of new money into the oil market. It cites a new report from Citigroup (NYSE: C) that estimates that roughly $10 of this year's upward move can be traced back to the influx of new money this year. "Financial players have now firmly moved ahead as the main near-term driver of oil prices," Citigroup said.

Another factor that is definitely involved, but rarely mentioned, is the impact that the weakening dollar is having on oil prices. The dollar has definitely been struggling lately, and just today it was announced that the Euro hit an all time high against the American currency. The Euro climbed to $1.37 today which is the highest in its history, and the British pound has been trading at around a 26 year high against the dollar for the past couple weeks.

We have seen a couple of pretty big names trading up to new 52 weeks in today's session.

The biggest jump on the day comes from MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR) whose shares jumped an impressive 19.7% today to $52.21 and set a new 52 week high earlier in the session at $52.96 after reporting better than expected earnings last night. The company reported $0.68 per share which handily beat estimates of $0.59.

Grocery giant Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) saw it's shares set a new high of $24.67 before finishing out the day up 1.8% to $24.51 up $0.44. No real news behind today's jump in this stock.

Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU) hit a new 52 week high in early morning trading sold off for most of the afternoon as profit takers came into the market. After setting a new high up at $37.55 the stock closed down 0.5% on the day to $37.10 down $0.20. No real news out on this stock today.

The real estate trust giant Equity Office Properties Trust ( NYSE: EOP) also set a new high today. Shareholders watched their stock trade up to a new high of $55.25 before finishing out the session up 0.6% to $55.22 up $0.32. Yesterday the company announced that that it has amended its merger agreement entered into on November 19, 2006 with affiliates of The Blackstone Group. Under this amended agreement, Blackstone has increased offer price to acquire all outstanding common stock of Equity Office to $54 per share payable in cash from previously provided $48.50 price per share.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.