Despite the worst three-month period for stocks since the third quarter of 2011, More than three dozen companies in the S&P 500 posted double-digit percentage gains during the third quarter.

Chipotle (CMG) was a market darling in the third quarter, gaining nearly 20%. Strong earnings in July helped. So did the return of its beloved carnitas to all its stores earlier this month.

Google (GOOGL, Tech30) also was up nearly 20% in the quarter, even as shares of rivals Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Yahoo (YHOO, Tech30) fell. Google outperformed Facebook (FB, Tech30) too.

The company reported strong earnings in July, reassuring investors who had started to worry that its best days are behind it. Profits blew away forecasts, led by healthy growth at YouTube and Google's growing mobile ad operations.

Investors also cheered Google's creation of Alphabet -- a new organizational structure that should hopefully provide more clarity about Google's various non-core businesses, such as health care technology and driverless cars.

Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) avoided the market carnage as well, also ending the third quarter with a nearly 20% gain. Solid earnings (an actual profit!) was a big driver of the stock in the past three months.

Amazon's Prime Day event in July -- massive deals for the subscribers to its yearly service -- was also a success. Even though many people complained on social media about the types of products being sold, Amazon still reported huge sales from the promotion.

One share of Amazon costs more than $500. A Google share will put you back about $635. And you need at least seven Benjamins and a Hamilton to afford just one share of Chipotle. So the fact that these stocks thrived in the third quarter shows that investors aren't suffering from sticker shock. They'll gladly pay up for quality.

The biggest winners in the quarter were companies that announced they were being acquired in the past three months, such as utilities Teco (TE) and AGL Resources (GAS), Cablevision (CVC) and insurer Chubb (CB). Brewer Molson Coors (TAP) was also up sharply due to the wave of mergers and acquisitions ... albeit indirectly.

With Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) expected to soon launch a formal takeover of SABMille (SBMRY)r, investors are speculating that this could be good news for Molson Coors since it has a joint venture with SABMiller in the United States.

But there were plenty of well-known stocks not involved in deals that surged this summer too.

Want more proof that video games are big business? Activision Blizzard (ATVI, Tech30) gained more than 25% during the quarter. It has a monster of a hit with its new "Destiny: The Taken King" game.

Best Buy (BBY) continued to show that its turnaround is for real. The electronics retailer's stock benefited from new products from Apple and Samsung. Its stock was up 13% in the quarter.

Athletic apparel is immune to market volatility apparently. Both Nike (NKE) and smaller rival Under Armour (UA) soared during the third quarter thanks to strong earnings and sales.

Low oil prices gave a boost to several travel-related stocks. Southwest Airlines (LUV) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) were each up more than 10%.

Tobacco giants Reynolds American (RAI) and Altria (MO) were also market winners in the third quarter. Steady sales growth, an increased presence in the lucrative e-cig market and big dividends were music to the ears of conservative investors shunning risk.

So there was money to be made even in this hard times, as long as you owned the right mix of stocks.

Ask us about our FREE financial advice program: 

Other Top Stories:

Will Twitter's Share Crash?

Technical Analysis Lesson 1 - Introduction

How I Made Over $30,000 a Year by Investing in Binary Options

Follow us and SHARE this story on Facebook:   

The world's largest social networking website will let you use a short video as your Facebook profile picture.

The video clip can only be a few seconds long, and it will play on loop, similar to Vine (which is owned by rival Twitter). And in a sign of our smartphone-addicted times, you'll need to be on Facebook's mobile app for iOS or Android in order to use the feature.

Facebook has placed increasing importance on video lately. With muted, autoplaying video the social network has cracked the code to increasing their online video impressions—skyrocketing from one billion to four times that, according to News.com.au.

Last week, Facebook introduced 360-degree videos that let you spin around and control what you're looking at while a video clip plays. These changes are just the latest and most noticeable to come to Facebook's mobile app.

The company has actually continually improved its apps with less flashy, but still useful features. When friends have liked a post, for example, a slide-in transition shows who of your favorite people have liked or commented on the status.

Other updates can be seen when browsing video within Facebook — after tapping one video, a list of related videos appears underneath, for example.

With Facebook's overall greater emphasis on video across the site, Profile Videos could prove hugely popular. Facebook’s new Profile Video can be recorded within the iOS or Android app by tapping on the video camera icon on the bottom right of your picture, though still images will be supported.

Facebook's new feature comes at a time when other tech companies are increasingly looking to offer users the ability to upload short, looping moving images that are somewhere between still images and movies. Earlier this month at Apple’s fall event, for instance, the company introduced many new improvements included in the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Among them were "Live Photos," a feature that records the moments before and after a photo is taken, then turns them into a moving image you can use on your iPhone's home screen and lock screen.

While Apple claimed that live photos will be shareable on Facebook, it's still unclear at the moment whether Facebook's new addition of moving profile images will let you upload iPhone Live Photos directly, in place of short movie clips.

Facebook already has over a billion users, over half of whom primarily access the site on mobile devices, but the company clearly does not want to stop there.

Ask us about our FREE financial advice program: 

Other Top Stories:

Will Twitter's Share Crash?

Technical Analysis Lesson 1 - Introduction

How I Made Over $30,000 a Year by Investing in Binary Options

Follow us and SHARE this story on Facebook:   

The Model X is finally here.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were up a little less than 1% Wednesday morning, while the broader market rallied. The reviews of the Model X have been nothing short of spectacular. Tesla CEO Elon Musk should be pleased.

Chris Ziegler at The Verge wrote that driving the Model X in the so-called Ludicrous Mode left him with a "dumb grin on my face when I smash the accelerator." "My brain is basically unable to mathematically comprehend how a car of this width, height, and girth is able to hustle like that," he added.

Wired gushed that "Tesla's Model X Is Here, and It's as Awesome as We Hoped" -- adding that it's "gorgeous" and "futuristic." "The doors have sensors to detect nearby objects, which should keep them from striking objects or limbs that might be in the way. If that's not cool enough, the driver's-side door can open and close for the approaching driver without a single human touch."

And Greg Kumparak at TechCrunch wrote that "I was hoping I might walk away from my short test drive in Tesla's Model X without the desire to throw down $130,000 I don't have... Alas."

The unveiling of the oft-delayed Model X SUV comes at an interesting time for Tesla and the rest of the industry. Tesla's stock has held up relatively well during a rocky third quarter. Shares are actually up more than 10% this year.

Investors have largely shrugged off concerns about sluggish sales in China, the possibility that low gas prices will hurt demand for electric cars and a valuation that could be considered the equivalent of its vehicles' Insane Mode.

So will the Model X push Tesla's stock even higher?

Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research wrote in a report early Wednesday that "Tesla just killed every other manufacturer."

Chowdhry raved that Tesla has re-defined the SUV. He's predicting that Tesla could sell 89,000 vehicles overall in 2016 and report revenue of $9.11 billion. Those estimates are higher than Wall Street's consensus forecasts.

And Chowdhry's price target on Tesla's stock is $385 -- more than 50% higher than current levels. Amazingly enough, that price target is conservative compared to some of his fellow analysts. Stifel's James Albertine thinks Tesla could hit $400.

Albertine wrote in a report Wednesday that concerns about further delays to Model X production because of design issues now appear to be "overblown" and that he's also not too worried about the possibility that Model X sales will eat into Tesla's Model S sedan demand.

And then there's Tesla uber-bull Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley. Jonas has a price target of $465 for Tesla.

Ask us about our FREE financial advice program: 

Other Top Stories:

Will Twitter's Share Crash?

Technical Analysis Lesson 1 - Introduction

How I Made Over $30,000 a Year by Investing in Binary Options

Follow us and SHARE this story on Facebook:   

Russia has conducted its first airstrike in Syria, near the city of Homs, a senior U.S. official confirmed. The Russians told the United States that they should not fly U.S. warplanes in Syria, but gave no geographical information about where they planned to strike. The senior official said U.S. missions are continuing as normal.

The upper house of the Russian parliament has given President Vladimir Putin approval to use the Russian air force in Syria, according to state media. The vote came after a request by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for military assistance in fighting ISIS, Ivanov said.

Four Russian Su-34 Fullback fighter jets are now at the Latakia air base in Syria, and more than 600 Russian troops are in place. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter directed his staff to "open lines of communication with Russia on de-confliction."

The timing of these discussions is to be worked out in the coming days. The purpose of the discussions is "to ensure the safety of coalition air crews," he said. Cook added that the two nations have common ground when it comes to fighting ISIS, also known as ISIL, with Carter making clear that "the goal should be to take the fight to ISIL and not to defend the Assad regime."

Russia continues to position itself to potentially launch airstrikes in Syria, but its movements suggest that its targets are something other than ISIS, according to U.S. officials.

"We see some very sophisticated air defenses going into those airfields. We see some very sophisticated air-to-air aircraft going into these airfields. I have not seen ISIL flying any airplanes that require SA-15s or SA-22s (Russian missiles). I have not seen ISIL flying any airplanes that require sophisticated air-to-air capabilities," Gen. Phillip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander, said on Monday.

"I'm looking at the capabilities and the capacities that are being created and I determine from that what might be their intent. These very sophisticated air defense capabilities are not about ISIL. They're about something else," he concluded.

Separately, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work confirmed to the Senate on Tuesday that Russia has violated a missile treaty with the United States but indicated that the administration didn't plan to take any action at present.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, asked Work at a hearing whether he thought the Russians had breached the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty governing the elimination of medium-range missiles.

"We believe very strongly that they did," he responded. But he also said, "This is still in discussions and we have not decided on any particular action at this point," noting that the United States has been in contact with the Russians over the issue.

Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama were confrontational toward each other in their morning speeches, then met to discuss Syria and Ukraine later in the day. "We have clarity on their objectives," one senior administration official said after the meeting. "Their objectives are to go after ISIL and to support the government."

Ask us about our FREE financial advice program: 

Other Top Stories:

Will Twitter's Share Crash?

Technical Analysis Lesson 1 - Introduction

How I Made Over $30,000 a Year by Investing in Binary Options

Follow us and SHARE this story on Facebook: